Ray IV. Harmony, Beauty, Art

Colour, and yet no colour now is seen. Sound and the soundless One meet in an infinite point of peace.

Time and the timeless One negate the thoughts of men. But time is not.

Form is there found, and yet the psychic sense reveals that which the form is powerless to hide,—the inner synthesis, the all-embracing prism, that point of unity which—when it is duly reached—reveals a further point where all the three are one, and not the two alone.

Form and its soul are merged. The inner vision watches o'er the fusion, knows the divine relation and sees the two as one. But from that point of high attainment, a higher vision blazes forth before the opened inner eye. The three are one, and not alone the two. Pass on, O pilgrim on the Way.

In reading these words, the student must bear in mind that the antechamber has been left behind and man stands (when he has allowed the fourth ray to do its work and can therefore function on the fourth or buddhic plane) within the temple of the Lord. He has found a measure of light, but in that light he now sees light, and visions a greater revelation and brilliance. This now becomes the object of his search. He has mastered the uses of duality and has learnt to at-one soul and body into one instrument for spirit. Now he passes on his way to achieve the greater synthesis.

The Lord of the fourth ray has many names which warrant careful study and much consideration. In less than a hundred years this Lord of harmonising power will have more influence and will offset some of the Saturn disruption of the first decanate of Aquarius. In the meantime a study of His names will produce a simplification of His efforts and build up a body of constructive thought which will facilitate His work when He is again in active manifestation. He is always, however, more or less in power where the human family is concerned, for there is a numerical alliance between the fourth ray, the fourth Creative Hierarchy, or the human monads, and the fourth kingdom in nature. His power is always consequently active.

The Perceiver on the Way

The Link between the Three and Three

The Divine Intermediary

The Hand of God

The Hidden One

The Seed, that is the Flower

The Mountain whereon Form dies

The Light within the Light

The Corrector of the Form

The One Who marks the parting of the Way

The Master

The Dweller in the Holy Place

The Lower than the Three, the Highest of the Four

The Trumpet of the Lord.

The aphorisms connected with this fourth ray are not easy of comprehension. They require an exercise of the intuition and are conveyed by six short and excessively brief commands uttered, curiously enough, late in the creative period and at the time when the fourth Creative Hierarchy came into incarnation:

1. Speak low the Word. Speak low.

Quality......power to penetrate the depths of matter.

2. Champion desire. Give what is needed to the seeker.

Quality......the dual aspects of desire.

3. Lower the thread. Unfold the Way. Link man with God. Arise.

Quality......power to reveal the path.

4. All flowers are thine. Settle the roots in mud, the flowers in sun. Prove mud and sun, and roots and flowers are one.

Quality......power to express divinity. Growth.

5. Roll and return, and roll again. Cycle around the circle of the Heavens. Prove all is one.

Quality......the harmony of the spheres.

6. Colour the sound. Sound forth the colour. Produce the notes and see them pass into the shades, which in their turn produce the sounds. Thus all are seen as one.

Quality......the synthesis of true beauty.

This instruction on the rays is of deeper significance than can as yet be comprehended. Careful systematic study and a sane refraining from the forming of rapid deductions will be the wisest way in which to approach its consideration. It is not possible for me to deal with the definite human psychological applications at this early stage. I am occupied with starting a general outline, with the impartation of ideas, with the grounding of a few basic concepts in the consciousness of the reader, and with an attempt to clothe this most abstruse and difficult subject in such a form that some new rhythm of thought may be set in motion, and some new realisations be grasped and held. These concern at present a prototypal cosmic process, and will lead eventually to an understanding of the part an individual may play in a stupendous cosmic whole.We begin with the universal and end with the particular, which is ever the truly occult method.

However, all that I am positing about a ray Life may be equally well posited anent a human life, but it should be borne in mind that the pure ray type does not as yet exist, for there is not to be found that perfect form, mechanism or expression of the ray quality, nor that absolutely purified appearance in the human family, except in such rare cases as the Buddha, or Christ, and (in another field of expression) an Alexander or Julius Caesar. Leonardo da Vinci was an analogous expression. The rays concern energy and consciousness, and determine expression, but where the matter utilised and the vehicle informed is as yet imperfectly evolved, there is then limitation and the "tuning out" automatically of much of the energy. The effect of ray force, working through imperfect forms, must be distorted and curtailed and misapplied. Let me illustrate. I have said that first ray energy works out as the destruction of forms; it must be remembered that a pure destroyer is utterly unknown, and mercifully for the race this is so. It is a beneficent condition that as yet a first ray ego is so handicapped and limited by the form nature and the quality of that form nature that it is unable to make adequate or intelligent use of its destructive force. First ray personalities are oft destructive, as well you know, but the energy generated is insufficient to work much harm. Again, pure love is incapable of expression today, its flow being impeded by the form nature. A consideration of these two cases will help the reader to appreciate the situation. But the time is near at hand wherein there will be a fuller expression of ray purpose, type or quality, and therefore a truer appearance.

This is owing to the imminent appearance, or manifestation, of certain great Lives Who will embody the energy of rays two, three, five and seven. They will thus constitute focal points for the inflow of these four types of divine energy and, this will produce a tremendous stimulation of their corresponding and responding units of life. These four Beings, Who will appear as human beings in the field of the modern world, may be looked for before the end of this century and Their united effort will inaugurate definitely the New Age, and usher in the period which will go down in history as the time of glory for the fifth root race. Each of these four Masters, for that They will be, is also subjectively the focal point for a triple inflow of energy from the centre in the Body of God which is symbolically spoken of as "the heart of the Sun." For each ray is in its turn a triple manifesting entity as is the solar Deity Himself. Love will be Their outstanding characteristic, and through that attractive magnetic force the new forms will come into being which will permit of purer ray types, and thus of more truly expressive appearances. A great deal of the destructive energy extant in the world today is due to the presence on the astral plane of a first ray disciple of the planetary Logos. His work it is to clear the way for the manifestation of these other four major Disciples, Who are primarily Builders; They will enter on Their work when the task of the wreckers of form has been accomplished.

I should like here to give a suggestion, for it is necessary that some of the methods of the Hierarchy should begin to be understood. The work of what in the West is called "the Christ Principle" is to build the forms for the expression of quality and life. That is the characteristic work of the second aspect of divinity. The work of the Antichrist is to destroy forms, and this is essentially the work of the first expression of divinity. But the work of the destroyer is not the work of black magic, and when ignorant humanity regards Antichrist as working on the black side, their error is great. His work is as beneficent as that of the building aspect, and it is but man's hatred of the death of forms which makes him regard the work of the destroyer as "black," as being against the divine will, and as subversive of the divine programme. The work of the representatives of that mysterious power which we call cosmic evil, and their responding representatives, is indeed worthy of the word "black"; but it is not applicable to the work of Antichrist. It might be added that the work of the black forces wells up from below, whilst the work of the destroyers is impelled from above. The symbols of these two ways are the sword and the cross.

After these preliminary remarks, which are intended to indicate the magnitude of the subject, we shall now proceed to an analysis of the three rays which still remain to be considered.