|
It is my intention, in writing about the 7 Rays of the Universe, to distill the ideas and make the concepts as simplified as possible to the concrete mind, which is that level of mental expression utilized by the great majority of the Human Race. I would recommend a review of "The Seven Rays Explained" if the reader has little familiarity with this subject of vast importance to the future disciplines of Psychology and Medicine and Sociology and Political Science and Education.
Before addressing this particular type of energy, I am compelled to provide the cosmic perspective of the origination of all things in Creation. The One Infinite and Unknowable Intelligence, Which is The Ultimate Source for all beings and all things in manifestation is Unmanifest and Undifferentiated. In other words, Unmanifest Infinity extended forth a Reflection of Itself as Manifest Infinity. Then The Infinite Manifest Source reflected Itself as the uncountable and probably infinite number of Creator Gods of all the Universes. In rewording, all the Universes (with an emphasis on tremendous plurality) were the creation of The Creator Gods or Universal Logoi, each Universe coming into manifestation as a result of the creative effort of one of these Creator Gods. All of the Logoic Creators of the Universes were (and are) Reflections of The Manifest Infinite Source, and That, in turn, is The Ultimate Reflection of The Unmanifest Infinite Source of All.
If you're still with me, I'll now narrow it down to our own particular Universe, which is just one drop in the Grand Cosmic Bucket. The Creative Source for this Universe sent forth Three Primary Extensions of Itself, The One becoming The Three, and these are called The Trinity or The Triune Godhead in human terminology. They are The 3 Divine Aspects that have been personified in the Hindu Scriptures (originating from Atlantis) as Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma. These 3 Aspects are, in numerical order, The Will of God, The Love of God, and The Mind of God.
The 3 differentiated further and became The 7, thus creating a Septenary Universe (refer to "A Septenary Universe"). The One unfolds to Three which unfolds further to Seven. The final Four of The Septenate are considered minor compared to The 3 Major Aspects and were projected forth out of The Mind of Brahma (3rd Aspect), being called Attributes rather than Aspects. The 7-Fold Nature of our Creator God is then reflected down to every Level of Existence and is extended throughout the entirety of the Universe. All of Life is a septenary reflection of The 7 Divine Extensions of our Universal Logos, and the 7 Rays are the 7 Universal Streams of Energy or Forces which have been projected by The Original Seven, the interaction of which, at every conceivable frequency level, has produced all of creation in this Universe.
Narrowing the perspective further down to our solar system, there is only one of the 7 Universal Rays that is operational throughout this system of planets (as selected by The Solar Logos, The Creator of this system), and that is the 2nd Ray of Love-Wisdom (see "The Second Ray"). All of the 7 Rays in this solar system, within its ring-pass-not, are subsidiary Rays or branches from the Major 2nd Ray, each of the 7 then being imbued with the quality of God's Love. Our Solar Logos is a God of Love.
The Ray Energies are directed by The Solar Hierarchy first to The Planetary Logoi of the 7 Sacred Planets of this solar system (Earth is not one of them), from which they are then directed to Lord Sanat Kumara, Who transmutes them through His Consciousness according to the Divine Purpose for Planet Earth and then passes them to The 3 Buddhas of Activity for further dissemination to The 7 Chohans of the 7 Rays (Each being The Heart Center of one of the 7 Departments of Earth's Spiritual Hierarchy). Each of the 7 Rays has a cyclical activity or incarnational manifestation with regard to Earth's Kingdoms of Nature, including the Human Kingdom, and the sequence of Ray activity is one of the secrets of Initiation because it implicates the purpose of this evolutionary scheme known in its completeness solely to Sanat Kumara (check out "Who Is Sanat Kumara?").
1. Let us proceed to the 4th Ray out of the 7 sub-Rays of the Love-Wisdom Ray. This is a Ray of dual expression, dual energies, duelling facets. What I mean is that it is a Ray Energy which deals with and resolves the polar extremes of life, the confrontational dualities that confront all sentient beings. It is most commonly called the Ray of Harmony through Conflict; Harmony is the higher expression of it, and Conflict is the lower expression. The English words which can best describe the higher aspect of this Ray Energy, as it makes its impact upon the incarnate human who is adequately responsive to it, are beauty, unity, harmoniousness, intuition, and artistry.
The 4th Ray is the equalizer, the center point of the balance, the energy which ultimately brings equilibrium out of imbalance and harmoniousness out of the conflict produced between two opposing extremes. It is the tool offered by The Creator of our system (The Solar Logos) for the resolution of all conflict and the blending and fusing together of all opposing dualities into a new, unified, workable creation, a creation which expresses harmony, whereas before there was dissonance and dysharmony. The 4th Ray both creates the warrings and the conflict when expressed by the unevolved personality with minimal Soul contact and the harmonious resolution of all disparate elements when the aspirant is under Soul influence.
The Rays are cyclical in their manifestation on Earth. Some are in "incarnation" and are being deployed by the related Ray Ashram in Earth's Spiritual Hierarchy (7 Major Ray Ashrams and 42 lesser and subsidiary Ashrams), and some are withdrawn and out of incarnation. The Piscean Age was dominated by the 6th Ray of Devotion and Abstract Idealism (seen in the fanaticism of the religions and sects and patriotic fervor and idealistic causes of the past 2,000 years). It began to slowly withdraw in 1625 A.D., while the 7th Ray of Ceremonial Order and Ritual began its incarnational descent in 1675 A.D. The 7th Ray will have governance over the New Aquarian Age (for more, click on "The Seventh Ray") for all the Kingdoms on Earth (Mineral, Plant, Animal, Human, and Deva).
Although the 4th Ray has not been in objective manifestation on this planet for the past historical period, it always has a subjective influence where Humanity is concerned. Over the long haul, the millions of years for the developement of the Root Races of Man (current one being the 5th sub-race of the 5th Root Race), it is the 4th Ray which has been the most influential and the Ray which is the most closely linked with the Human Race. It is the Divine Energy which has propelled the Race forward with more expediency than any of the others, because through conflict (internal or external) and the necessity for the resolution of that conflict the fastest growth takes place. One could say that the perpetual underlying influence of this 4th Ray, from the beginnings of the Human Race (18 million years ago) unto the present day, has been the greatest impetus toward evolutionary advancement that Man has experienced (even including the Path of Initiation begun by Sanat Kumara during Mid-Atlantean Times).
2. Every human soul in incarnation has 5 Rays of influence (preincarnatively chosen by the Soul), one each for the Soul, the personality, and the mental, astral, and physical bodies. The Soul Ray remains the same for an entire Round of Earth (of which there are 7 Rounds with 7 Root Races in each Round), and all the personality Rays are changed with each new lifetime. These 5 energetic influences are called the Ray Structure of the individual and determine weaknesses and strengths, career choices, attitudes to life, predispositions, and orientations. The more Soul-influenced is the individual (disciples and Initiates) the more that the virtues of the Ray are expressed, and the less Soul-influenced the more that the vices of the Ray are demonstrated. So, the point of evolution very much determines how the incarnate personality is going to respond to this 4th Ray of Harmony through Conflict.
As with all the Rays, there are a multiplicity of expressions of this Ray as it makes its impact felt at the personality level. There is a grouping of manifest characteristics, a range of attributes that condition the personality for life or one of the 3 aspects of that personality (mind, emotions, body). One of the most common ways for the human to express this unique energy is through what are called the creative arts: dance, sculpture, painting, music, architecture, interior design, writing. A great many of the artists of the world are on this Ray, but it should be made clear that artists of every kind can be found in equal measure on any of the 7 Rays. By saying that someone is on a particular Ray usually refers to the mental body or the personality being on it, and if the Soul and the personality are on the same Ray, the individual is a strong exponent of that Ray Energy (especially when evolved).
Taking the artist as an example of this Ray influence, many of them lead tortured lives and experience the mercurial fluctuations between the extremes of deep despair and high exaltation. Mercurial would be one description of the 4th Rayer in the thralls of creative endeavor. By the way, Planet Mercury is the focalizer for the 4th Ray in this solar system, so the term mercurial is no coincidence. This type of artist is a perfect balance of inertia/inactivity on the one hand and intense, fiery activity on the other: a balance of tamasic and rajasic qualities. They are governed by cycles in the creative process, a period of intense creative activity followed by a period of lying fallow and doing nothing and taking the experiences that life has to offer before being propelled into another period of great and sustained activity which nothing can subdue or suppress.
They have their own rhythms and must follow these rhythms regardless of what is happening in the social environment. The art that comes into manifest form is the harmonious expression of the internal conflict (of many kinds) that has found resolution within the artist. The depths of the indolence and inertia are brought on by the internal dialogue centering on the conflict. It must last as long as it lasts. And the exaltation arises from having brought harmony to the conflictual matter and clarity to the creative thought-form; then there is the intense flurry of activity to bring the creation into full manifest expression on the dense physical level.
The 4th Ray provides a tremendous intuitive and imaginative quality to the creative process, and ever the goal is to bring beauty out of the harmonization of the conflict. Beauty is a primary impulse generated by this particular energy, beauty in form of some kind or another. The intuition flows from the Soul to the mind of the personality, and so the greater the Soul contact (and Degree of Initiation), the greater and more imaginative the works of art. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an exaggerated personification of the artist, having four 4th Rays in his Ray Structure (most unusual), and because he was 3rd Degree Initiate, he was fully Soul-merged and could simply take dictation for his musical compositions from Soul Level (also from The Masters). The creation of beauty through music was the most natural thing in the world to him (he has since become an Ascended Master and works with the Deva Evolution assisting Serapis Bey).
3. What other things can be said about this 4th Ray? The 4th Rayer instinctively has a compulsion to unite and resolve and blend the pairs of opposites (dualities of every kind) into a non-oppositional relationship to achieve a new harmonious reality that previously did not exist. They very much love the process itself of working through the conflict to bring forth a new harmony, and if the conflict involves two polar extremes, it is instinctual to bring those extremes to a meeting place where they may be resolved into a new unification that can be characterized by harmony.
The way that the 4th Ray disciple would approach the Path of Discipleship (to a Master) is, first of all, to accept that for much of the time they will be at war with themselves or environing conditions, because the personality is at war with the Soul for control of the incarnation (the Dweller on the Threshold is in a standoff with the Angel of The Presence). A recognition is made that there is opportunity inherent in consciously reconciling the many conflicts, which will not resolve themselves. They acknowledge to themselves that the establishment of an equilibrium amongst all the warring forces is a pre-requisite to the art of self-control (an absolute necessity on the Path). The tedious and painstaking work of extracting good from and thoughtfully considering both sides of the extremes is the work cut out for the 4th Ray disciple wishing to advance toward the Threshold of Initiation (please see "The Only Path On Earth"). The mental body is thus stimulated to expand, another pre-requisite.
The 4th Rayer is probably the most intuitive of all the Ray types (including 2nd Ray). There is an inward, introspective orientation toward the Soul which is prompted by this Ray Energy, but additionally it facilitates the downflow of guidance from the Soul when the mind or physical brain of the recipient is receptive enough. The 4th Ray promotes an energetic bridge of communication between the Soul and its incarnation, and this is called intuition. Although Albert Einstein was in the 2nd Ray Ashram of Kuthumi, having a 2nd Ray Soul and personality, he had a 4th Ray mind, and being 2 Degrees Initiate he was gaining in Soul contact and control. His mind, under the conditioning of the 4th Ray and being highly intuitive, received the Theory of Relativity as a fully formed thought-package from Soul Level (without being encumbered by the thought process), but then it took him years to come up with the mathematical proofs for his ground-breaking theory.
The 4th Ray has been "out of incarnation" on Planet Earth for a long time (although ever subjectively influencing the Center or Chakra called Humanity, the Throat Center of The Planetary Logos) but will be slowly beginning its incarnating process around the year 2025 A.D. It will be gradually intensifying its influence on the Human Kingdom as a whole (beyond its ever-present background influence), so that, in conjunction with the governing control of the 7th Ray in the New Age, it will be stimulating the highest forms of art throughout the Race.
The 4th and 7th Rays in combination produce the greatest artists because of their synergistic influence on that creational modality that we call art. In the Times to Come, the entire life of people will be given over to one long work of art called the art of living. Beauty and harmony and unity of the love-infused 4th Ray will be ubiquitous amongst the ones who remain after the Dimensional Shift and will be balanced by the qualities of the 7th Ray, which assists in giving structure and organization to form and in precipitating those forms onto the dense physical level (refer to "The Seventh Ray"). An example of the High Initiate with only 4th and 7th Rays in his makeup was Leonardo da Vinci. We can barely imagine the effects of these two Rays as they make their presence felt in the Aquarian Age. The 4th Ray will draw out the beauty underlying all the form expressions of God on the planet and take artistic creativity to heights never before seen on Earth.
It may be a fine point to make and may appear to be splitting hairs, but this 4th Ray is not actually the Ray of Art as is so often believed because so many artists can be found to be under its influence. It is really the energy which brings about the harmonious beauty of the created forms which embody and encapsulate the ideals demanding immediate expression through the inspired individual. We may call those embodied ideals a work of art, but they can also be considered as idealistic thought-forms made manifest, having been drawn from the mind of the creative human agent under the conditioning influence of the 4th Ray, and harmony and beauty and symmetrical unity are the spiritual qualities (and by-products) garnered through reconciliation of the internal conflicting dualities (angels and demons of the lower concrete mind).
4. This is the Ray which is used as a testing agent by the Soul on its incarnate expression, and this testing has nothing to do with karmic re-balancing. Through the eons of lifetimes (of a Soul) all of its personalities and 3-fold vehicles of expression (mental, astral, physical) are given every Ray and every Ray combination to maximize and round out the totality of incarnate experience of the Soul. It is only after two-thirds of the thousands of lives have been completed that the incarnation finally steps onto the Path of Discipleship to a Master (for more, go to "The Only Path On Earth"). Self-centeredness begins to give way to selfless service, and materiality begins to give way to spirituality.
At a certain point of the disciple in training, the Soul , as instructed by The Master, chooses to test its incarnate aspect in order to demonstrate to its incarnation whether there has been gain or non-gain in the past cycles of lifetimes. The disciplines of discipleship are put to a test for an entire lifetime by choosing the 4th Ray of Harmony through Conflict for either the astral or the mental bodies, depending on whether the Soul wants the battleground to be in the emotions or in the mind. There will be a lifetime of stresses and strains, trials and tribulations, and the battleground is provided by the 4th Ray to test the disciple's ability to confront the conflicts and to resolve the conflicts into some kind of harmonious arrangement, whether on the Astral Plane or on the Mental Plane (and sometimes on the Physical Plane).
The repeated testing indicates to the disciple how much progress has been gained. The final battle is on the Battleground of Kurukshetra (written about symbolically in the Bhagavad Gita) whereupon the disciple (Arjuna) must decide for either the personality (and the lure of materialism) or the Soul (Krishna, representing Spirit). Spirit and matter are the opposing forces; the Dweller on the Threshold directly confronts the Angel of the Presence. When the disciple joins the forces of the Soul (or Solar Angel), the 3rd Initiation may be taken, and the Transfiguration of Soul Fusion takes place (please see "What Initiation Is Really About").
5. The Law of Sacrifice: One of the mysterious purposes of our Lord of the World (Sanat Kumara) in overseeing the evolutionary scheme called Planet Earth had led to the admittance of suffering and pain into the plans for the Human Kingdom (irrespective of group karma). The basis for this decision remains a mystery and a secret except for The Higher Initiates in The Council of Shamballa. It must remain a mystery at present to Humankind, but the fact of its presence cannot be denied, most particularly during the recent Piscean Age. There are only two other planets in this solar system which likewise experience this pain and suffering, and those are Mars and Saturn. None of the others have any experience of this catalytic arrangement, and I can't speak for civilizations beyond the solar ring-pass-not (all our planets have developing sentient life at varying dimensional levels).
It is under what is called the Law of Sacrifice that the agenda of pain and suffering was invoked and decreed by our Planetary Logos, The One in Whom we live and move and have our being, The Higher Self of Sanat Kumara. This Law of Sacrifice is governed by the at-one-ing energy of the 4th Ray, and this would be the principle reason that the 4th Ray has been the primary influence on the Collective of Humanity since its inception 18 million years ago. All the conflicts (of every kind) before resolution have been the vehicles for providing the suffering and the pain deemed so essential (for mysterious reasons) by The First Kumara for the progress of the Human Race.
The esoteric name for this Law is "The Law of Those Who choose to Die", and its esoteric symbol is the Rosy Cross with the Golden Bird flying over it, representing the sacrificial act of crucifixion on the cross of matter (incarnate physicality), done out of deepest love (rose color) to assure the release and freedom for the spirit within the forms trapped in matter on the involutionary arc. The Golden Bird is the Soul which sacrifices its perfect bliss in Nirvana to incarnate into dense and suffering physical forms on behalf of The Father in Heaven (The Monad, its Higher Self) to put the forms onto the evolutionary arc and provide The Monad with growth and experience.
It is an enormous sacrifice to ensoul a planet such as Earth, our Planetary Logos being called The Great Sacrifice. It is an inconceivable sacrifice for Sanat Kumara to remain with Earth's Evolutions for millions of years until the last weary pilgrim has found the way Home. It is a sacrifice for The Monad to extend forth 12 Expressions called Souls to partake of the physical Earth, and it is a sacrifice for the perfected Souls to enter into the exceedingly limiting form of a human being. It is sacrificial for the 6th Degree Masters of The Hierarchy to remain with Earth (at Sanat Kumara's request for the Aquarian Age) rather than graduating to more advanced schemes, and it will be a sacrifice for two-thirds of The Spiritual Hierarchy related to the Human Evolution to Externalize in the New Age and work in dense physicality (which They will be doing). (To gain an overview of Earth's Hierarchy, go to "Who Are The Spiritual Hierarchy?".)
All of these sacrifices are made out of the impulse of giving and the over-riding force of love. By making these sacrifices (and The Solar Logos must be included), opportunity to progress on the evolutionary arc was offered to all lives in all Kingdoms of Nature in all created worlds, but the sacrifice involved leaving a perfected State of Being and descending into matter. The Solar Angels (Souls) occultly chose to die (to blissful perfection) by descending into matter (the Fall from Heaven), manifesting through a dense unwieldy body, and reincarnating thousands of times to evolve the matter aspect and lift it up into Heaven. This is the mystery which is symbolically hinted at in the world scriptures. The Solar Angels were "cast out of Heaven" to initiate the beginning of the Human Race (Adam and Eve) by ensouling the primitive bipedal anthropoids existent on the Earth and, by doing so, partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil for the first time (the duality of existence).
Throughout the sacrifice and the sorrow and the pain of Earth living, the energy of the 4th Ray is ever present as a governing and conditioning factor for the 4th Kingdom in Nature, the Human, and the Earth is called the Planet of Sorrows not without good reason. However, sacrifice will always be made by Higher Beings for those on a lower rung of the ladder, because it is axiomatic that All are One and that separativeness is only a temporary illusion and that all must return to The Godhead of Being before any can fully return. The Sacrificers must pull their brothers and sisters along on the Journey of Return and thus will continue to sacrifice and suffer where the Divine Plan calls for it in order to nudge and prod the laggards and the stragglers onto higher terraces of The Divine Pyramid of Being.
6. The Principle of Conflict: The Principle of Pain was called into activity by Sanat Kumara for the slowly-evolving Nature Kingdoms on the Earth (sub-human as well as human) as an essential requirement for carrying the Divine Purpose (in the Mind of The Planetary Logos) to successful completion, a Purpose known in its entirety only to Sanat Kumara. The 4th Ray was chosen as a vehicle for the administration of the Principle of Pain and has remained a subjective influence upon the full spectrum of Nature Kingdoms and all life on this planet for millions of years, regardless of the cyclical incarnational patterns of the other Rays. It is the ever-present dominant energy of the Human Evolution, which is only modified somewhat by the Governing Ray of each astrological age. Its exerting pressure was intensified (by The Shamballa Council) toward the end of the Atlantean Root Race (the 4th) and has remained intensified throughout the sequential sub-races of our 5th Root Race (in the Aquarian Age, the Harmony Aspect will be its essential expression).
The 4th Ray has brought us the Principle of Conflict, from which has been derived the Principle of Pain, and has been responsible for the conflict between the most important of the pairs of opposites: that which we call Spirit and matter. This particular energy facilitates the developement of discrimination in Man, that mental achievement which allows the distinguishing between the opposing pairs: good & evil, right & wrong, inward & outward, Soul & personality, spiritual & material (keep in mind that the mental apparatus of the Atlantean and early Aryan was a primitive instrument). In fact, it was under the influence of the 4th Ray Principle of Conflict that the Atlanteans made their decision in favor of materiality and inaugurated the Age of Materialism which continues to the present day.
The balance will swing toward the side of Spirit in the approaching New Age, but the greed and hatred and violence and aggressiveness that accompanied the materialistic orientation of Humanity brought a full and uncompromising measure of pain and suffering to the Race that won't be forgotten in the mists of time. The time is coming for a collective renunciation of materialsm, which will be a great awakening for the Race and a demonstration that the Principle of Conflict has been used correctly in bringing about a right discrimination, a right decision, and a right orientation toward the only things that matter: the Soul and its Source, The Monad. We can here get but a small glimpse of the purpose for pain and conflict and sorrow as one of the intermediate goals of our Lord of the World is achieved.
The Principle of Conflict, riding on the energy of the 4th Ray, is intended to be used by the disciples of Humanity to emerge out of the control of the desires and demands of the physical body (1st Initiation), next by emerging out of the control of the emotional nature (2nd Initiation), and finally out of the control of the lower, concrete mental nature (3rd Initiation) to become a Soul-infused personality. It is only at the 4th Initiation of the Great Renunciation that all conflict ceases, and the whole process and purpose for this Principle of Conflict comes to a culmination point, and the 3 worlds of human experiencing (physical, emotional, mental) can no longer touch the Adept (refer to "The Only Path On Earth").
Emergence out of form life has been made possible by right decision and the right use of conflict resolution, leading to the renunciation of all conflict and finally emancipation (taking place over eons of lifetimes). All crises in the material world (for individuals or the Collective of Man) are governed by the Principle of Conflict, whereas after the 4th Initiation, all crises thereafter are governed by the Principle of Decision. Their crises of decision involve perception of the Divine Plan, participation in the Divine Purpose for Earth, and the prevention of evil (workings of the Dark Brotherhood); because They have transcended the conflicts and discriminative choices of the lower mind involving dualities.
It can be a little hard to grasp all this by the non-Initiate mind. Let us just say that Sanat Kumara knew what He was doing and made the 4th Ray the testing and catalytic agent for Humankind by allowing it to be subjected to crisis after crisis, undergoing the pain and suffering brought on by the crises, and learning how to resolve and reject and renounce each of them by harmonizing the causes and the conditions of those crises. The whole process of confronting crisis, which always involved conflict and oppositional dualities, necessitated the progressive developement of the mind and its ability to discern and discriminate so that right choice could be made and right action could be taken (eventually).
In an indirect way, then, the 4th Ray and its Principle of Conflict has been a stimulant to the developement of the mind in the Race of Man, which is one of the major objectives in the Plan of Sanat Kumara and The Hierarchy. The Masters have gone beyond any kind of conflict and personality individualization and limitations of the concrete mind, and any crises that They must face involve decision (but never conflict) with regards to the Purpose or the Plan for the planet and matters of countering the agenda of the Dark Forces who are arrayed in opposition to The Great White Lodge.
It is conflict that has made Humanity aware, in the first place, of the dualism and polarity of the manifested worlds, and thus a battleground and field of experience has been presented for making experimental choices and learning how to discriminate rightly and suffering through the pains of choices poorly made, if not in the same life then in others. And so, it can be seen that the Law of Cause and Effect (Karma) is closely related to the Principle of Conflict and that The Lords of Karma must have had some influence in seeing that the 4th Ray would always have an impact on Humanity down through the Ages.
This Conflict Principle, having emanated from the lower aspect of the Ray of Harmony through Conflict, has been the underlying impetus and the catalytic agent that has oriented (eventually after many troubling lives) the aspiring disciple toward his Solar Angel and away from the lures of materiality and has brought him to the Threshold of Initiation, all as a result of developing right perception and discrimination and then making the right choices when confronted by the crises and their points of tension seeking resolution (and harmony). The disciples and Initiates of the world have enduringly and painfully ridden the Wave of Conflict down through the millennia into the Light-Saturated Ashrams of The Perfected Ones and now reach back to rescue those still confronting the greatest conflict of all: the choice between the selfish, materialistic preoccupations of the personality or the selfless, altruistic orientation of the Soul. The Battleground of Kurukshetra is never at a loss for combatants.
The Principle of Conflict, along with the orientation of Humankind toward materiality, has precipitated the endless wars, rivalries, hatreds, bloodshed, and violent aggressions; and the resultant misery, starvation, and suffering has galvanized the mental attitudes of the masses toward resolution of the conditions which have led to the crises of confrontation. In other words, all the large-scale conflicts down through the Ages have been very effective in gradually changing the opinion toward war efforts from patriotism and gallantry to horror and opposition (pick your war; there's plenty of innocent blood to go around).
The tide is turning; the continual conflicts have raised the discriminatory awareness of Man; the divine experiment is proving successful; and the Race as a whole is choosing peaceful coexistence, tolerance of differences, harmonious human relations, and an ever-expanding sharing of human resources between the haves and the have nots. I should interject that the 2nd Ray of Love-Wisdom has a strong influence on the 4th Ray on this planet and brings inclusiveness, sharing, and right relationship to bear upon the 4th Ray activity of producing harmony out of conflict (all the 7 Rays in this system are infused with God's Love).
A disciple is an aspirant who has been accepted by an Ascended Master, for purposes of training, education, and supervision, to eventually become a member of the Ashram and an intelligent server of the Human Race. The individual disciple is led to discover that it is the Principle of Conflict which is the primary propelling agent for the complete harmonization of his or her entire nature. It is in the emergence from the repeated crises and oppositional tensions and conflicts lifetime after lifetime that the eventual fusion of the Soul and personality will be consummated in the 3rd Initiation of Transfiguration.
In the scheme designed by Sanat Kumara, the 4th Ray lays the groundwork and sets the stage for progress along the Path of Discipleship and then the Path of Initiation, culminating, by its catalytic influence, in the 4th Initiation of Renunciation, after which conflict is no longer desireable or needed, and struggle and suffering are no more. A serene Adept stands forth with power to serve the Divine Plan (if interested, click on "What Initiation Is Really About").
7. How about some examples of this 4th Ray as it is experienced in the individual and the nation-states of the world. I will list some historical personages who were Initiates of varying degree and who had a 4th Ray nature because of its dominating presence in the Ray Structure of their makeup. When Soul and personality or Soul and mind are on the same Ray, there is a facilitated line of minimal resistance for the 4th Ray Soul to be expressed through its incarnate vehicle, and the higher the Initiate Level, the higher the expression of Beauty, Art, Harmony, and Unity coming from the 4th Ray Soul. Each of the following has its own Ray of influence: Soul, personality, mental, astral, and physical bodies. I'll abbreviate them as S, P, M, A, and Ph.
Ali (son-in-law of Mohammed): S, P, A (4th Caliph of Arabia)
Ludwig von Beethoven: S, P (German composer)
Hector Berlioz: S, P, M (French composer)
Peter Paul Rubens: S, A (Flemish painter)
Leonard Bernstein: S, P (American conductor/composer)
Emily Bronte: P, M (British writer)
Frederic Chopin: S, P (Polish composer)
Gaetano Donizetti: S, P, M (Italian composer)
Federico Fellini: S, P, A (Italian film director)
Georges Gurdjieff I: S, P (Russian occult teacher)
Georg Friedrich Handel: S, A (German composer)
Herman Hesse: S, P (German writer)
Akira Kurosawa: S, P, M (Japanese film maker)
Leonardo da Vinci: S, A (Italian painter)
Jack London: S, P, M, A (American writer)
Gustav Mahler: S, P, M (Austrian composer)
Felix Mendelssohn: S, P (Geman composer)
Michelangelo: P, M (Italian sculptor/painter)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: S, P, M, A (Austrian composer)
Swami Muktananda: S, P, A (Indian spiritual teacher)
Nicolo Paganini: S, P, A (Italian composer/musician)
Sergey Rachmaninov: S, P, A (Russian composer/pianist)
Praxiteles: S, P, M (Grecian sculptor)
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: S, P (Russian composer)
Zoroaster: S, M (Persian spiritual teacher)
Giuseppe Verdi: S, P, M (Italian composer)
Diego Velasquez: S, A (Spanish painter)
James Joyce: P, A (Irish writer)
Rudolf Nureyev: S, P, A (Russian ballet dancer)
Peter Sellers: S, P, A (British actor)
We can see the strong propensity of this 4th Ray to create beauty in all the art forms known to Man, as it gets expressed through the initiated disciple who is conditioned and driven by this particular energy at multiple levels of being. The higher the Degree of Initiation, the more readily the Light and direction of the Soul pours through and the more magnificence, complexity, and beautifulness of the art as a harmonized expression of the artist, brought from mental and astral/emotional levels down into manifest physicality.
8. Rays of the Nations: All the nations of the world have also a Soul Ray and a Personality Ray, the former lasting for the duration of the nation, and the latter sometimes changing as a result of migration patterns and powerful events in the life of the nation. The unevolved masses of a country express the characteristics of the Personality Ray in a self-interested, nationalistic manner and often the negative attributes or vices of the Ray. The disciples and Initiates of the country sense and express the characteristics of the Soul Ray and, if in a leadership position, may convince the masses to do the same.
The Soul Ray qualities, when put in service to the world, are the idealistic eventual goal of the nation, and when the Soul Ray is beginning to succeed the Personality Ray, a temporary and preparatory period of destruction of the old forms and old ways ensues (the destroyer aspect of the 1st Ray is sent in to sweep away the old to make way for the new and allow the Soul Ray full expression).
The Ray Structure of the nations is determined by Sanat Kumara and His Shamballa Council in accordance with the Grand Plan for Humanity on Earth, and the highly influential energies are disseminated from the Ashrams of The Ray Lords (Chohans) of The Spiritual Hierarchy in discriminative dosages to effect the most idealistic changes contained in the Plan. Yet, all of Humanity has free will to choose how they will respond to the energies, selfishly or selflessly. International relations, trading partnerships, and political affiliations are very much affected by the Rays of each country (by similarity or dissimilarity).
Germany has a 4th Ray Soul (and a 1st Ray Personality, which sought power over Europe in the 2 World Wars). The lower aspect of the 4th Ray (Conflict) was a powerful synergistic influence on the 1st Ray during those periods of the 19th and 20th Centuries when the German people and their leaders aggressively attacked their neighbors in a bid to dominate over them. The 1st Ray was used selfishly and mightily, and the conflictual aspect of the 4th Ray created crisis after crisis.
Glimpses of the higher aspect of this Soul Ray were seen in the beauty and genius contributed to the world by its painters: Holbein, Durer, Grunewald; its philosophers, Hegel and Kant; its poets, Goethe and Schiller; and its many great musical composers: Brahms, Wagner, Bach, Schumann, Handel, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. Remember, the Initiates feel the Soul Ray energy and are doubly stimulated if they have the same influence in their Ray Structure. It is the destiny of Germany to harmonize Europe when expressing altruistically from the Soul.
Much of Central Europe in addition to Germany is governed at the Soul Level by this 4th Ray: both Austria and the countries that split off from the former Czechoslovakia. In fact, Europe as a whole and the European Union are governed by a 4th Ray Soul and a 3rd Ray Personality (see "The Third
Ray"). From this may be inferred that, when the collective consciousness of the Europeans rises to the level of being responsive to the input from the Soul (to some measure), that portion of the world that we call Europe will demonstrate and be an example for harmonious relations and cooperation and equitable sharing of resources within its bloc of countries but also without to the world. As an aside, no country in the world is operating from its Soul Level during this final phase of the Piscean Age.
Italy has a 4th Ray personality expression through the common masses (and a 6th Ray Soul of Idealism), which is the causative agent for so much conflict down through time: the Roman Empire with its ceaseless struggles and wars of territorial acquisition, the warring city-states before unification into a common national territory, the conflicting interests of a king, dictator, and pope during WWII, and the extraordinary number of political parties all vying with each other for power. Their revolt against the ecclesiastical control of the Church may also be seen in this light. When its Soul Ray finally comes into expression, this country will show lofty spiritual ideals to the rest of the world (reflecting the 6th Ray).
Brazil has a 4th Ray Soul and a 2nd Ray Personality which expresses itself as self-love and self-interest with materialistic predispositions. India has a 4th Ray Personality (and a 1st Ray Soul) which can be seen in its ages-old crystallizations and separativeness leading to conflict: numerous religious groups, diversified sects, and a plethora of competing languages. The caste system may be seen as a direct consequence of the 4th Ray as may the intense rivalry between the Hindus and the Moslems. The partitioning of India in 1947 to split off Pakistan was a 4th Ray cleavage.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have a 4th Ray Personality and are the perfect example of this crisis and conflict-producing energy. If not for the Taliban and terrorists and radical extremists, some other group would come along to fill the void. The contention over Kashmir by India and Pakistan is 4th Ray. Sri Lanka has this same Personality Ray, and the rebellion of the Tamil Tigers against the majority Sinhalese is fostered by its energy. The pronounced enmity on the Korean Peninsula between North and South is fed by this 4th Ray Principle of Conflict (thanks to its 4th Ray Personality).
9. The Virtues and Vices of the 4th Ray: Each of the Rays have energies, as they become expressed in humans, which may be considered as positive or negative, virtues or vices. The aspirants on the Path tend to express the virtues, while the undeveloped masses tend to express the vices, though not exclusively.
Virtues: intellectual quickness and inventive imagination, intuitiveness, generosity, devotion to beauty, physical courage, strongly affectionate, conflict resolution, propensity for peaceful harmony.
Vices: indolence, excessively passionate when stimulated (non-sexual implication), lability of emotions, extravagance (overdoing it), lack of moral courage, worrying and fearfulness, self-centeredness, glamorization of war, veiling of the intuition.
The following are the virtues which must necessarily be acquired by the 4th Ray disciple seeking entrance to the Path of Initiation: moral balance, accuracy and precision of thought, self-control, serenity and moderation of passions, confidence, and unselfishness.
10. Miscellaneous Comments:
a. The current Chohan of the 4th Ray for Planet Earth is One Who prefers to be simply called Master Paul. This is not Paul the Venetian Master Who was formerly The Chohan of the 3rd Ray and Who incarnated as Paolo Veronese, the Renaissance painter. Master Paul has taken over the 4th Ray Department from Serapis Bey, Who advanced a few decades ago to head the entire 3rd Ray Department. Master Paul is a Top Specialist in the Deva Evolution and spends a considerable amount of "time" working with and training the Devas (a parallel Evolution or Kingdom on this planet). As a matter of fact, this Ascended Master was one of the Higher Devas before becoming involved in Earth's Spiritual Hierarchy and the 4th Ray Ashram. Archangel Gabriel has a special and close relationship with Master Paul, which tremendously benefits all the work being done to bring harmony and unity out of conflict.
b. There is no one, single type of meditation that everyone must practice in seeking union with the Divine (the Soul or, for the more advanced, the Spiritual Triad of The Monad). Entering a mental state of thoughtlessness is not the only way to go. The method should be determined by the Ray of the Soul and its Causal Body (click on "The Causal Body Of The Soul"). If that Egoic Ray is the 4th, then the method is along the line of the inner realization of harmony and beauty, and this method is greatly aided by the intuitive faculty of the 4th Ray exponent. I should qualify this concept by saying that the higher the point in evolution (along the Initiate Path), the more that the Soul Ray determines the type of meditation. For the spiritual neophytes and early aspirants, the best meditation would be quieting the mind and holding it steady (and passively) in the Light of the Soul.
So, the individual with a 4th Ray Soul and especially one with also a 4th Ray personality or mind (or both) should withdraw within to visualize and to feel and intuit and to create the thought-form in all its complexity (with the aid of the Soul) before then bringing that creation into outer manifest form. This is the method of Soul contact and union with the Divine for all artists and painters and musicians and writers and poets and architects, etc. This is how they reach their goal on the Path of Return. They don't silence the mind; they open the intuitive channel to the Soul and use the creative imagination to congeal a thought-form on the Mental Plane. Then the talented and more-evolved artist is able to bring that thought-form into manifest reality at the physical level, be it a dance form, a symphony, a philosophical treatise, or a sculpture.
This is the method of spiritual advancement (and meditation) for the 4th Rayer, which is much different from all the other Rays. The 3rd Rayer also has a great deal of creativity, but they create by means of thought, whereas the 4th Rayer creates by means of the intuitive connection with the Solar Angel. It's the difference between concrete, analytical thinking and intuition, but it should be no surprise that the 4th Ray method overlaps the 3rd, because the 4th Ray is a sub-Ray of the 3rd Ray (some creative thinking must be involved). This is one of the routes to Mastery. Beethoven, Mozart, Michelangelo, Paolo Veronese, and Leonardo da Vinci are all now Ascended Masters.
The creative artist is brought to crisis by the irresistible urge to create (from Soul); the conflict is between capability or incapability to bring the creation forth; and the internal resolution of the conflict by manifesting it in form nature is the emergence into peace and harmony and beauty for the artist.
c. The continual conflicts to which the individual or the group are subjected by the ever-present 4th Ray in the life of Humanity produce a diffusion of energy in the aetheric body (the template for the physical body) and a constant devitalization, because Mankind (for the most part) doesn't know how to emerge triumphantly from the testing device of conflict. Resistance to disease is thusly eroded, leading to all manner of ill health and particularly contagious diseases.
The physical, emotional, or mental responses to the conflicts dissipate the vital energies in the aetheric body (for an elaboration, go to "The Aetheric Body"), which predisposes to infectious disease (and other forms), because the immune system in the physical body becomes compromised. This is the cause of epidemics. Look at the association of war and strife and struggle and starvation with infectious disease: influenza pandemic after World War I, bubonic plague of the Dark Ages, ebola outbreak in wartorn West Africa, mononucleosis in conflicted teenagers. Once understood, this becomes further impetus to harmonization out of conflict.
d. The 4th Ray mind would be quick and imaginative with a highly inventive nature, and it has a strong intuitive connection with the Soul. It enjoys developing ideas and playing with words (like puns) and has a humorous bent, because humor is harmonizing in its effect. The line of least resistance for this kind of mind is creative, artistic activity. The 4th Ray astral body would be one wild ride of emotional extremes and sudden changeability. It can fluctuate from the subdued despairs and bottomed-out depressions to the enthusiasm and exaltation of working on an inspired project once fired up to break the spell of indolence (between projects). The 4th Ray physical body (not common) has a tendency to be rather small (Charlie Chaplin) but to have good coordination and adaptability and yet some refinement of gesture and delicate nature.
e. The 4th Ray in combination with the 7th produces the very highest and most talented kind of artist, given a significantly advanced point of evolution and Soul-given ability to respond to these energies. For the musical composers, the 4th Ray provides the beauty of melody, and the 7th Ray provides the structure and composition of the piece. They balance and augment each other. For the painter, the 4th Ray confers the beauty of color and radiance and softness and light, while the 7th Ray brings into the mix the ability to design and draw and organize the architecture of the piece, the composition of the painting (if need be, check out "The Seventh Ray").
Da Vinci had only 4's and 7's in his Ray Structure (and was 4 degrees Initiate, an Adept). Most of the great artists of history (of whichever field of expression) had a preponderance of 4th and 7th Rays in their Ray Structure. The Renaissance of Europe was a planned event by The Hierarchy, Who sent us the following painters whose most substantial influence was these two Rays: Rembrandt van Rijn, Diego Valasquez, El Greco, Albrecht Durer, Pieter Brueghel, Paolo Veronese, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Da Vinci - to name only a few.
11. Closing Comments: The 4th Ray streams right down the middle of the 7 Rays of our solar system (which are the sub-Rays of the 2nd Cosmic Ray) and serves as the harmonizer of all the Rays and all life and brings us the divine attribute or quality that we call Beauty. This 4th Ray of Harmony through Conflict and the 2nd Ray of Love-Wisdom are always in the background, exerting their influence on the Human Evolution regardless of the periodical cycling and dominance of the other Rays over Earth and her Kingdoms of Nature. That gives a clue to the destiny of Man once evolved enough to partake in Soul Consciousness: Love and Harmony.
Lord Sanat Kumara, The Reflection of our Planetary Logos onto the highest Aetheric Plane, carries the Divine Purpose for Planet Earth and projects aspects of the Plan to The Council of Shamballa from Whence they find their way to the 7 Major Ashrams of The Hierarchy (overseen by The Chohans of the 7 Rays). The 4th Ray was chosen by Sanat Kumara (in His Wisdom) to apply pressure upon the Human Evolution for the entirety of its existence in order to accelerate the pace of evolution because, through pain and suffering of conflict, the Race would seek the equilibrating point of balance between the polar extremes and would come into a harmonious realization of Soul Nature, leaving the material nature behind.
The 4th Ray, along with the 2nd Ray, would be the leverage to catapult the Race past the ever-widening cycles of karmic repercussions, because it was known that the Principle of Conflict could only eventuate in the Principle of Harmony, and the terrible deeds perpetrated under conflict would be expiated when harmonious and right relations resulted and love governed human interaction.
The 4th Ray is a divine tool for transducing the focus upon materiality into the focus upon spirituality. It was known that out of the horrors of warfare (and any other kind of conflict) would arise the deepest need for peace and harmony and that there would be an inward turning toward Soul and God, the goal of all sentiency. The lower aspect of conflict is the catalytic agent (eventually) to the realization of the higher aspect of harmony, beauty, and unity (properties of the divine). The 4th Kingdom of Nature (Man) in the 4th Round of Earth (out of 7 Rounds) will ever be conditioned by the 4th Ray until it has collectively taken the 4th Initiation (the Great Renunciation) and gone beyond all suffering, sorrow, conflict, and materiality.
Offered with Loving Intent to Master Paul and The Deva Evolution
|
