Ray I. Will or Power.

Behind the central sacred sun, hidden within its rays, a form is found. Within that form there glows a point of power which vibrates not as yet but shines as light electric.

Fierce are its rays. It burns all forms, yet touches not the life of God incarnate.

From the One who is the seven goes forth a word. That word reverberates along the line of fiery essence, and when it sounds within the circle of the human lives it takes the form of affirmation, an uttered fiat or word of power. Thus there is impressed upon the living mold the thought of...... (the hidden, inexpressible ray name.)

Let dynamic power, electric light, reveal the past, destroy the form that is, and open up the golden door.

This door reveals the way which leads towards the centre where dwells the one whose name cannot be heard within the confines of our solar sphere.

His robe of blue veils his eternal purpose, but in the rising and the setting sun his orb of red is seen.

His word is power. His light, electric. The lightning is his symbol. His will is hidden in the counsel of his thought. Nought is revealed.

His power is felt. The sons of men, reacting to his power, send to the utmost bounds of light a question:

Why this blind power? Why death? Why this decay of forms? Why the negation of the power to hold? Why death, Oh Mighty Son of God?

Faintly the answer comes: I hold the keys of life and death. I bind and loose again. I, the Destroyer, am.

This ray Lord is not yet in full expression, except as He causes destruction and brings cycles to an end.

The Monads of power are much fewer in number than any others. Egos upon the power ray are relatively not so few. They are characterised by a dynamic will, and their power within the human family works out as the force of destruction, but in the last analysis it is a destruction that will produce liberation. We shall see as we continue to study first ray egos and personalities that death and destruction are always to be found in their work, and hence the apparent cruelty and impersonality of their reactions. Form does not count with first ray types their energy produces death to form, but ushers in great periods of cyclic pralaya; the first ray is the controller of the death drama in all kingdoms—a destruction of forms which brings about release of power and permits "entrance into Light through the gateway of Death." The intent of the Lord of the first ray is to stand behind His six Brothers, and when They have achieved Their purpose, to shatter the forms which They have built.

This He does by passing His power through Their bodies, and Their united effort leads to abstraction and a return to the center whence the initial impulse came. The first ray purpose therefore is to produce death, and some idea of that purpose may be gleaned if we study some of the names by which the ray Lord is called:

The Lord of Death

The Opener of the Door

The Liberator from Form

The Great Abstractor

The Fiery Element, producing shattering

The Crystallizer of the Form

The Power that touches and withdraws

The Lord of the Burning Ground

The Will that breaks into the Garden

The Ravisher of Souls

The Finger of God

The Breath that blasts

The Lightning which annihilates

The Most High

The qualities and characteristics of this Lord Who brings release may be gathered from the following six aphorisms which, an ancient legend says, His six Brothers gave to Him, as They begged Him to hold His hand till They had had time to work out Their purposes:

1. Kill out desire when desire has fulfilled its work. Thou art the one who indicates fulfillment.

Quality......clear vision.

2. Seek out the gentle way, Oh Lord of Power. Wait for thy brother on the path of Love. He builds the forms that can withstand thy power.

Quality...... dynamic power.

3. Withhold the hand until the time has come. Then give the gift of death, Oh Opener of the Door.

Quality......sense of time.

4. Stand not alone, but with the many join thyself. Thou art the One, the Isolated. Come forth unto thine own.

Quality...... solitariness.

5. Lead thine own forth but learn to know thine own. Hate not attachment but see its plan and purpose.

Quality...... detachment.

6. Through thee the life pulsates, the rhythm is imposed. The life is all. Love life in all its forms.

Quality......singleness of purpose.

The six qualities enumerated above express the force of this ray as it makes its presence felt in the fourth kingdom in nature. The effects in other kingdoms differ, but we shall confine our attention to the standpoint of humanity. The purpose of the first ray, and its main work, is to produce cessation and the death of all forms in all kingdoms in nature and on all planes. The energy of this ray Lord brings about the death of an ant or of a solar system, of an organisation, a religion, or a government, of a race type or of a planet. His will or purpose works out through the law of periodicity.