“Seven horses drive you in your chariot, O Divine Sun, Seer of all, God of the radiant hair.” (Rig Veda, 1.50.8)
“The Seven Sages form Seven Paths. On one of these, each desolate mortal can journey to the heart of the Sun.” (Rig Veda, 9.10)
“Before the throne in heaven burn seven torches of fire, which are the Seven Spirits of God. . . . I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” (Revelation 4:5, 5:6)
The Seven Rays are one of the most fascinating and popular subjects for aspiring esotericists. This is not only because they explain so much but is partly due to the very phrase “Seven Rays” having an unusually appealing or attractive magnetism about it.
However, there are now masses of conflicting and mutually contradictory teachings and systems, mostly within the New Age Movement, all purporting to give the truth about this topic. The original teaching to the modern world regarding the Seven Rays has been lost sight of among all this rampant overgrowth. That teaching was given by H. P. Blavatsky, the main founder of the modern Theosophical Movement, in her role as “Direct Agent” or “Messenger” of the Masters of the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood.
Even in the Theosophical Society, her writings on the subject quickly fell into neglect after her passing, due to being replaced by a different version of the teaching, derived solely from the self-proclaimed clairvoyant discoveries of C. W. Leadbeater, which were accepted as truth by Annie Besant and thence by the whole of that organisation, which has always comprised the majority of Theosophists. One understandable reason for the popularity of Leadbeater’s system of the Seven Rays is that he provides descriptive names in English for each of the Rays. HPB, on the other hand, had only provided their Sanskrit names, which even if translated into English did not reveal much at all. It is very unlikely, however, that the Leadbeater names and details for the Rays are accurate, considering that he was an extremely immoral and deliberately deceptive individual, who only narrowly escaped imprisonment as a sexual criminal (see The Case Against C. W. Leadbeater), all of which would mitigate strongly against pure, spiritual, reliable inner vision on his part. We do not doubt that he had psychic perceptions, but the psychic realm is not the spiritual, and is imbued with illusion and error. Besides this, his claims that the Seventh Ray – whose Era we are allegedly now entering, according to him – is the Ray of Ceremonial Magic and Ritualism, and that these should now be practised and promoted, show his ideas to be wholly at odds with those of HPB and her Adept-Teachers, as can be seen here.
The much more extensive and complex teaching on the Seven Rays contained in the Alice Bailey books is very popular today but this – like almost everything in her writings – is based very closely on Leadbeater’s works and builds thereon. Our article Why Do Blavatsky Students Warn Against Alice Bailey? should make clear why many of us do not consider her or her supposedly “Tibetan” inspirer a legitimate source.
We will shortly see that in “The Secret Doctrine” HPB quotes approvingly some of the Indian Theosophist T. Subba Row’s explanations about the Seven Rays, and so one may wonder whether Subba Row’s further comments on the subject in what is known as his “Esoteric Writings” or “Esoteric Teachings” are trustworthy. It is hard to know exactly how reliable or accurate they are, which is why they have not been incorporated into this article, but we would indeed recommend a reflective study of them to anyone so inclined.
Many people imagine that the doctrine of the Seven Rays is a modern innovation, going back no further than the early decades of the Theosophical Society. But it is actually a truly ancient concept, as our opening quotations from Hindu and Christian scriptures show. The Sanskrit names of the Seven Rays as given by HPB do not originate with her; they are found in the Vishnu Purana, another old Hindu text. But though occasional brief mentions, hints, and traces of this teaching can be found throughout millennia, it was never directly explained for the general public until the hour struck for the grand mission of the Mahatmas and HPB on the world scene. They maintain that this teaching does not originate in any known religion but belongs to the ancient “Wisdom-Religion,” the Secret Doctrine which in the very far distant past was much more common knowledge than it is now.
Those acquainted with the original Theosophical teachings will see from the following compilation (which contains many but not all of the direct references in the original literature; there are myriads more references to the same and closely related subjects, albeit without using the specific term “Seven Rays” and suchlike) that the Seven Rays are vitally interlinked with, and inseparable from, numerous of the main teachings and ideas of the Esoteric Philosophy, ranging from the Logos and cosmic evolution to the Masters and human evolution, including of course the Seven Principles of the human constitution, which are microcosmic specialisations of the Seven Rays. Truth is an integral whole, a flawless and natural synthesis. One cannot discuss any one teaching of Theosophy without also discussing all others, whether explicitly or implicitly.
Direct practical applications of the occult knowledge concerning the Seven Rays were not offered by HPB. Barely any of us are fit for it or would be able to handle it safely and successfully. There is plenty that is practical in genuine Theosophy (see the many articles under the heading “SPIRITUAL LIVING AND PRACTICE” on the Articles page for examples) but what is given about the Seven Rays is primarily to study, meditate, and reflect upon, endeavouring to clearly and deeply comprehend it. As well as informing the intellect, it will elevate the consciousness and thrill the heart.
FROM THE WRITINGS OF H. P. BLAVATSKY
AND SEVERAL OTHERS
“Moreover, in Occult metaphysics there are, properly speaking, two “Ones” — the One on the unreachable plane of Absoluteness and Infinity, on which no speculation is possible, and the Second “One” on the plane of Emanations. The former can neither emanate nor be divided, as it is eternal, absolute, and immutable. The Second, being, so to speak, the reflection of the first One (for it is the Logos, or Iswara, in the Universe of Illusion), can do all this. It emanates from itself — as the upper Sephirothal Triad emanates the lower seven Sephiroth — the seven Rays or Dhyan Chohans [i.e. celestial beings or cosmic gods]; in other words, the Homogeneous becomes the Heterogeneous, the “Protyle” differentiates into the Elements.” (H. P. Blavatsky, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 130)
“Primordial Light. In Occultism, the light which is born in, and through the preternatural darkness of chaos, which contains “the all in all”, the seven rays that become later the seven Principles in Nature.” (HPB, “The Theosophical Glossary” p. 262)
“. . . the World of Truth, or Sat, through which the direct energy that radiates from the ONE REALITY — the Nameless Deity — reaches us. . . . This “World of Truth” can be described only in the words of the Commentary as “A bright star dropped from the heart of Eternity; the beacon of hope on whose Seven Rays hang the Seven Worlds of Being.” Truly so; since those are the Seven Lights whose reflections are the human immortal Monads — the Atma, or the irradiating Spirit of every creature of the human family.” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 119-120)
“”Space and Time are one. Space and Time are nameless, for they are the incognizable THAT, which can be sensed only through its seven rays — which are the Seven Creations, the Seven Worlds, the Seven Laws,” etc., etc., etc. . . .” (A verse “from the Esoteric Volumes,” quoted/translated in “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 612)
“The one Cosmic atom becomes seven atoms on the plane of matter, and each is transformed into a centre of energy; that same atom becomes seven rays on the plane of spirit, and the seven creative forces of nature, radiating from the root-essence . . .” (from an esoteric text quoted/translated by HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 635)
“There are seven chief groups of such Dhyan Chohans, which groups will be found and recognised in every religion, for they are the primeval SEVEN Rays. Humanity, occultism teaches us, is divided into seven distinct groups and their sub-divisions, mental, spiritual, and physical. . . .
“Hence the seven chief planets, the spheres of the indwelling seven spirits, under each of which is born one of the human groups which is guided and influenced thereby. There are only seven planets (specially connected with earth), and twelve houses, but the possible combinations of their aspects are countless. As each planet can stand to each of the others in twelve different aspects, their combinations must, therefore, be almost infinite; as infinite, in fact, as the spiritual, psychic, mental, and physical capacities in the numberless varieties of the genus homo, each of which varieties is born under one of the seven planets and one of the said countless planetary combinations.” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 573)
“. . . that one ray (the Logos), which contains in itself the other seven procreative rays or powers (the logoi or builders).” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 80)
“We must seek for the ultimate causes of light, heat, etc., etc., in MATTER existing in super-sensuous states — states, however, as fully objective to the spiritual eye of man, as a horse or a tree is to the ordinary mortal. Light and heat are the ghost or shadow of matter in motion. Such states can be perceived by the SEER or the Adept during the hours of trance, under the Sushumna ray — the first of the Seven Mystic rays of the Sun. . . .
“The names of the Seven Rays — which are, Sushumna, Harikesa, Viswakarman, Viswatryarchas, Sannaddha, Sarvavasu and Swaraj — are all mystical, and each has its distinct application in a distinct state of consciousness, for occult purposes. The Sushumna, which, as said in the Nirukta (11, 6), is only to light up the moon, is the ray nevertheless cherished by the initiated Yogis. The totality of the Seven Rays spread through the Solar system constitute, so to say, the physical Upadhi (basis) of the Ether of Science; in which Upadhi, light, heat, electricity, etc., etc., — the forces of orthodox science — correlate to produce their terrestrial effects. As psychic and spiritual effects, they emanate from, and have their origin in, the supra-solar Upadhi, in the ether of the Occultist — or Akâsa.” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 515)
“The Gandharva of the Veda is the deity who knows and reveals the secrets of heaven and divine truths to mortals. Cosmically — the Gandharvas are the aggregate powers of the solar-fire, and constitute its Forces; psychically — the intelligence residing in the Sushumna, Solar ray, the highest of the seven rays; mystically — the occult force in the Soma (the moon, or lunar plant) and the drink made of it; physically — the phenomenal, and spiritually — the noumenal causes of Sound and the “Voice of Nature.”” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 523)
“Sushumnâ (Sk.). The solar ray — the first of the seven rays. Also the name of a spinal nerve which connects the heart with the Brahmarandra, and plays a most important part in Yoga practices.” (HPB, “The Theosophical Glossary” p. 314)
“Svarâj (Sk.). The last or seventh (synthetical) ray of the seven solar rays; the same as Brahmâ. These seven rays are the entire gamut of the seven occult forces (or gods) of nature, as their respective names well prove. These are: Sushumnâ (the ray which transmits sunlight to the moon); Harikesha, Visvakarman, Visvatryarchas, Sannadhas, Sarvâvasu, and Svarâj. As each stands for one of the creative gods or Forces, it is easy to see how important were the functions of the sun in the eyes of antiquity, and why it was deified by the profane.” (HPB, “The Theosophical Glossary” p. 315)
“This verse in the [Rig] Veda (X. 5-6), “The seven wise ones (rays of wisdom, Dhyanis) fashion seven paths (or lines as also Races in another sense). To one of these may the distressed mortal come” — which is interpreted solely from the astronomical and cosmic aspect — is one of the most pregnant in occult meaning. The “paths” may mean lines (maryadah), but they are primarily beams of light falling on the paths leading to wisdom. (See Rig Veda IV. 5-13.) It means “ways” or paths. They are, in short, the seven Rays which fall free from the macrocosmic centre, the seven principles in the metaphysical, the seven Races in the physical sense. All depends upon the key used.” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 191)
“For, though entirely allegorical, the Rig-Vedic hymns are none the less suggestive. The seven rays of Sûrya (the Sun) are made therein parallel to the Seven Worlds (of every planetary chain), to the seven rivers of heaven and earth, the former being the seven creative Hosts, and the latter the Seven men, or primitive human groups. The Seven ancient Rishis — the progenitors of all that lives and breathes on earth — are the seven friends of Agni, his seven “horses,” or seven “Heads.”” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 605)
“The progenitors of mankind solved the greatest problem of the Universe with their [teaching of the] seven Rays or Rishis.” (HPB, “The “Zohar” on Creation and the Elohim”)
“Ahura Mazda (Ormazd) was the head and synthesis of the seven Amesha Spentas (or Amshaspends), and, therefore, an Amesha Spenta himself. Just as “Jehovah-Binah Arelim” was the head and synthesis of the Elohim and no more; so Agni-Vishnu-Sûrya was the synthesis and head, or the focus whence emanated in physics as in metaphysics, from the Spiritual as from the physical Sun, the Seven Rays, the seven fiery tongues, the seven planets or gods. All these became supreme gods and the One God, but only after the loss of the primeval secrets, the sinking of Atlantis, or “the Flood,” and the occupation of India by the Brahmans, who sought safety on the summits of the Himalayas, when even the high table-lands of what is now Tibet became submerged for a time.” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 608)
“The seven old books stolen out of Noah’s ark by Ham, and given to Cush, his son, and the seven Brazen columns of Ham and Cheiron, are a reflection and a remembrance of the Seven primordial mysteries instituted according to the “Seven secret emanations,” the “Seven Sounds,” and seven rays . . .” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 612-613)
“Ancients, The. A name given by Occultists to the seven creative Rays, born of Chaos, or the “Deep.”” (HPB, “The Theosophical Glossary” p. 22)
“The Ah-hi are the primordial seven rays, or Logoi, emanated from the first Logos, triple, yet one in its essence. . . . the strict truth is that they only proceed from unity, and are the first of its seven rays.” (HPB, “Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge” p. 19, 25)
“. . . the primordial seven rays from which will emanate in their turn all the other luminous and non-luminous lives, whether Archangels, Devils, men or apes. Some have been and some will only now become human beings. It is only after the differentiation of the seven rays and after the seven forces of nature have taken them in hand and worked upon them, that they become cornerstones, or rejected pieces of clay. Everything, therefore, is in these seven rays, . . .” (HPB, “Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge” p. 54-55)
“The first stage is the appearance of the potential point in the circle — the unmanifested Logos. The second stage is the shooting forth of the Ray from the potential white point, producing the first point, which is called, in the Zohar, Kether or Sephira. The third stage is the production from Kether of Chochmah, and Binah, thus constituting the first triangle, which is the Third or manifested Logos — in other words, the subjective and objective Universe. Further, from this manifested Logos will proceed the Seven Rays, which in the Zohar are called the lower Sephiroth and in Eastern occultism the primordial seven rays. Thence will proceed the innumerable series of Hierarchies.” (HPB, “Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge” p. 83)
“However many the Rays may appear to be on this plane, when brought back to their original source they will finally be resolved into a unity, like the seven prismatic colours which all proceed from, and are resolved into the one white ray. Thus too, this one solitary Ray expands into the seven rays (and their innumerable sub-divisions) on the plane of illusion only.” (HPB, “Transactions of The Blavatsky Lodge” p. 105)
“The “triads” [i.e. the Monad-Egos or spiritual entities, our higher, inner nature constituted of Atma, Buddhi, and Higher Manas] born under the same Parent-planet, or rather the radiations of one and the same Planetary Spirit (Dhyani Buddha) are, in all their after lives and rebirths, sister, or “twin-souls,” on this Earth.
“This was known to every high Initiate in every age and in every country: “I and my Father are one,” said Jesus (John x. 30). When He is made to say, elsewhere (xx. 17): “I ascend to my Father and your Father,” it meant that which has just been stated. It was simply to show that the group of his disciples and followers attracted to Him belonged to the same Dhyani Buddha, “Star,” or “Father,” again of the same planetary realm and division as He did. It is the knowledge of this occult doctrine that found expression in the review of “The Idyll of the White Lotus,” when Mr. T. Subba Row wrote: “Every Buddha meets at his last initiation all the great adepts who reached Buddhahood during the preceding ages . . . every class of adepts has its own bond of spiritual communion which knits them together. . . . . The only possible and effectual way of entering into such brotherhood . . . . is by bringing oneself within the influence of the Spiritual light which radiates from one’s own Logos. I may further point out here . . . . that such communion is only possible between persons whose souls derive their life and sustenance from the same divine RAY, and that, as seven distinct rays radiate from the ‘Central Spiritual Sun,’ all adepts and Dhyan Chohans are divisible into seven classes, each of which is guided, controlled, and overshadowed by one of the seven forms or manifestations of the divine Wisdom.” (“Theosophist,” Aug., 1886.)” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 574)
“Fix thy Soul’s gaze upon the star whose ray thou art, the flaming star that shines within the lightless depths of ever-being, the boundless fields of the Unknown.” (“The Voice of The Silence” translated by HPB from the Book of the Golden Precepts, p. 31, original edition)
HPB’s comment on the above passage: “Every spiritual EGO is a ray of a “Planetary Spirit” according to esoteric teaching.”
“You ask the names of the seven rays or lodges. The names could not be given if known to me. In these matters names are always realities, and consequently to give the name would be to reveal the thing itself. Besides, if the names were given, the ordinary person hearing them would not understand them. Just as if I should say that the name of the first is X, which expresses nothing at all to the mind of the hearing person. All that can be said is that there exist those seven rays, districts, or divisions, just as we say that in a town there are legislators, merchants, teachers, and servants. The difference is that in this case we know all about the town, and know just what those names mean. The name only directs the mind to the idea or essential quality.” (William Q. Judge, “Letters That Have Helped Me” p. 46-47)
“Recent discoveries have proved the wonderful properties of the blue-violet light — the seventh ray of the prismatic spectrum, the most powerfully chemical of all, which corresponds with the highest note in the musical scale. The Rosicrucian theory, that the whole universe is a musical instrument, is the Pythagorean doctrine of the music of the spheres. Sounds and colors are all spiritual numerals; as the seven prismatic rays proceed from one spot in heaven, so the seven powers of nature, each of them a number, are the seven radiations of the Unity, the central, spiritual SUN.” (HPB, “Isis Unveiled” Vol. 1, p. 514)
“One must consult the Pythagoreans and Kabalists to learn the potentiality of this number. Exoterically the seven rays of the solar spectrum are represented concretely in the seven-rayed god Heptaktis. These seven rays epitomized into THREE primary rays, namely, the red, blue, and yellow, form the solar trinity, and typify respectively spirit-matter and spirit-essence. Science has also reduced of late the seven rays to three primary ones, thus corroborating the scientific conception of the ancients of at least one of the visible manifestations of the invisible deity, and the seven divided into a quaternary and a trinity.” (HPB, “Isis Unveiled” Vol. 2, p. 417-418)
“The theory of rebirth must be set forth by Occultists, and then applied to special cases. The right comprehension of this psychic fact is based upon a correct view of that group of celestial Beings who are universally called the seven Primeval Gods or Angels — our Dhyân Chohans —the “Seven Primeval Rays” or Powers, adopted later on by the Christian Religion as the “Seven Angels of the Presence.”
“Arûpa, formless, at the upper rung of the ladder of Being, materializing more and more as they descend in the scale of objectivity and form ending in the grossest and most imperfect of the Hierarchy, man — it is the former, purely spiritual group that is pointed out to us, in our Occult teaching, as the nursery and fountain-head of human beings. Therein germinates that consciousness which is the earliest manifestation from causal Consciousness — the Alpha and Omega of divine being and life forever.
“And as it proceeds downward through every phase of existence, descending through man, through animal, and plant, it ends its descent only in the mineral. It is represented by the double triangle — the most mysterious and the most suggestive of all mystic signs, for it is a double glyph embracing spiritual and physical consciousness and life, the former triangle running upwards, and the lower downwards, both interlaced and showing the various planes of the twice-seven modes of consciousness, the fourteen spheres of existence, the Lokas of the Brâhmans.
“The reader may now be able to obtain a clearer comprehension of the whole thing. He will also see what is meant by the “Watchers,” there being one placed as the Guardian or Regent over each of the seven divisions or regions of the earth, according to old traditions, as there is one to watch over and guide every one of the fourteen worlds or Lokas.
“But it is not with any of these that we are at present concerned but with the “Seven Breaths,” so-called, that furnish man with his immortal Monad in his cyclic pilgrimage.” (HPB, “The Doctrine of Avataras”)
“The seven [regions] of Bhûmi [i.e. our planet Earth], hang by golden threads [beams or rays] from the Spiritual central Sun [or ‘God’]. Higher than all, a watcher for each [region]. The Suras come down this [beam]. They cross the six and reach the Seventh [our earth]. They are our mother earth’s [Bhûmi] supporters [or guardians]. The eighth watches over the [seven] watchers.” (from an esoteric text quoted/translated by HPB in the posthumously published article “Fragments”)
“In ancient Symbolism it was always the SUN (though the Spiritual, not the visible, Sun was meant), that was supposed to send forth the chief Saviours and Avatars. Hence the connecting link between the Buddhas, the Avatars, and so many other incarnations of the highest SEVEN.” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 638)
“When mortals shall have become sufficiently spiritualised, there will be no more need of forcing them into a correct comprehension of ancient Wisdom. Men will know then, that there never yet was a great World-reformer, whose name has passed into our generation, who (a) was not a direct emanation of the LOGOS (under whatever name known to us), i.e., an essential incarnation of one of “the seven,” of the “divine Spirit who is sevenfold”; and (b) who had not appeared before, during the past Cycles. They will recognise, then, the cause which produces in history and chronology certain riddles of the ages; the reason why, for instance, it is impossible for them to assign any reliable date to Zoroaster, who is found multiplied by twelve and fourteen in the Dabistan; why the Rishis and Manus are so mixed up in their numbers and individualities; why Krishna and Buddha speak of themselves as re-incarnations, i.e., Krishna is identified with the Rishi Narayana, and Gautama gives a series of his previous births; and why the former, especially, being “the very supreme Brahmā,” is yet called Amsamsavatara – “a part of a part” only of the Supreme on Earth. Finally, why Osiris is a great God, and at the same time a “prince on Earth,” who reappears in Thoth-Hermes, and why Jesus (in Hebrew, Joshua) of Nazareth is recognised, cabalistically, in Joshua, the Son of Nun, as well as in other personages. The esoteric doctrine explains it by saying that each of these (as many others) had first appeared on earth as one of the seven powers of the LOGOS, individualized as a God or “Angel” (messenger); then, mixed with matter, they had re-appeared in turn as great sages and instructors who “taught the Fifth Race,” after having instructed the two preceding races, had ruled during the Divine Dynasties, and had finally sacrificed themselves, to be reborn under various circumstances for the good of mankind, and for its salvation at certain critical periods; until in their last incarnations they had become truly only “the parts of a part” on earth, though de facto the One Supreme in Nature.
“This is the metaphysics of Theogony. And, as every “Power” among the SEVEN has (once individualized) in his charge one of the elements of creation, and rules over it, hence the many meanings in every symbol, which, unless interpreted according to the esoteric methods, generally lead to an inextricable confusion.” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 358-359)
“I thought you knew by this time that Logos number one radiated seven primeval rays, which are as one, and are called the septenary robe of destiny; and that from that one is ultimately born Logos number three, whose seven rays become the kosmic builders and whose aggregate is Fohat. How, then, can the sons of Light and Life, the septenary robe of immutable destiny, be otherwise than beyond the Laya centres?” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine Dialogues” p. 379)
“But it is all one; it is simply the rays which proceed from one; and more and more do they proceed to differentiate until they become fully conditioned and fall down here in this world of ours, with its thousands and millions of inhabitants — as Carlyle said, “most of them fools.” . . . they proceed from unity. . . . What are the prismatic rays, if you please, if not one single white ray? From the one they become three, from the three they become seven, because there is a prismatic scale of colours.” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine Dialogues” p. 40)
“[The Logos is] the primordial spiritual serpent with its glory of seven rays, or seven vowels.” (HPB, Commentary on the Pistis Sophia)
“Now think: the Nag [i.e. Naga, meaning “serpent,” meant here – as in the preceding quote – in its symbolic cosmic sense of the Universal Wisdom or Logos] awakes. He heaves a heavy breath and the latter is sent like an electric shock all along the wire encircling Space. Go to your pianoforte and execute upon the lower register of keys the seven notes of the lower octave — up and down. Begin pianissimo, crescendo from the first key, and having struck fortissimo on the last lower note go back diminuendo, getting out of your last note a hardly perceptible sound — “morendo pianissimo” (as I luckily for my illustration find it printed in one of the musick pieces in K.H.’s old portmanteau). The first and the last notes will represent to you the first and last spheres in the cycle of evolution — the highest! the one you strike once is our planet. Remember you have to reverse the order on the pianoforte: begin with the seventh note, not with the first. The seven vowels chanted by the Egyptian priests to the seven rays of the rising sun to which Memnon responded, meant but that. The one Life-principle when in action runs in circuits even as known in physical science. It runs the round in human body, where the head represents and is to the Microcosmos (the physical world of matter) what the summit of the cycle is to the Macrocosmos (the world of universal spiritual Forces); and so with the formation of worlds and the great descending and ascending “circle of necessity.” All is one Law. Man has his seven principles, the germs of which he brings with him at his birth. So has a planet or a world.” (Master M., “The Mahatma Letters” p. 73)
“That class of the “Fire Dhyanis,” which we identify on undeniable grounds with the Agnishwattas, is called in our school the “Heart” of the Dhyan-Chohanic Body; and it is said to have incarnated in the third race of men and made them perfect. The esoteric Mystagogy speaks of the mysterious relation existing between the hebdomadic essence or substance of this angelic Heart and that of man, whose every physical organ, and psychic, and spiritual function, is a reflection, so to say, a copy on the terrestrial plane of the model or prototype above. Why, it is asked, should there be such a strange repetition of the number seven in the anatomical structure of man? Why should the heart have four lower “cavities and three higher divisions,” answering so strangely to the septenary division of the human principles, separated into two groups, the higher and the lower; and why should the same division be found in the various classes of Pitris, and especially our Fire Dhyanis? For, as already stated, these Beings fall into four corporeal (or grosser) and three incorporeal (or subtler) “principles,” or call them by any other name you please. Why do the seven nervous plexuses of the body radiate seven rays? Why are there these seven plexuses, and why seven distinct layers in the human skin?” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 91-92)
“Suppose I were able to induce in the optic nerve that vibratory ratio which enables it to perceive the yellow color. How do I do it? I act as Nature does. She presents a given numerical vibration to the nerves, and forthwith they telegraph to the brain the sense impression of yellow. Which do you call the real thing in itself; the sense impression? or the vibratory ratio? I induce (if I can!) that same ratio in the nervous fluid, and the brain again registers yellow. Soon, if I were to continue this action, that nerve aura of the inner man would be in synchronous action and interaction with a whole plane of being — call it the lower plane of the yellow ray, and all the things of that plane which are related to that vibration are perceived. Those parts of specific things which are not in relation to the vibration are not seen, and thus partial knowledge arises. It is literally true that you see that which you are.” (WQJ, “Letters That Have Helped Me” p. 157)
“To detach ourselves from the lower and to attach that lower self to the Higher Triad is the whole story. Two or three people can create havoc with their pride and conceit. This discord-disunity in the lower is a reflection of the Harmony made by the seven Rays or seven Lodges or seven Hierarchies. That Harmony exists at the Centre, but in lower spheres it remains to be established. So, primarily in this as in so many other matters, the work is upon ourselves — each one of us.”
“The seven [human] groups are evolving along seven lines. Let us compare them to seven professions — architect, engineer, lawyer, doctor, artist, etc. No one is superior or inferior to the other. They are different and equally useful to civic life. The difference in the seven Rays or Lodges is not of powers and knowledge and virtues, as of technique. They all have the power to know and to serve, but each Ray has a technique of its own. Of course individualistic differences do seem to persist. Shelley and Keats are both poets with intuition; there is similarity of message but difference in technique.” (B. P. Wadia, “Extracts from Unpublished Letters”)
“Masters [are] under the same spiritual rays as their chelas.” (WQJ, “Subjects for Discussion” p. 8)
“A long chain of influence extends from the highest spiritual guide who may belong to any man, down through vast numbers of spiritual chiefs, ending at last in the mere teacher of our youth. Or, to restate it in modern reversion of thought, a chain extends up from our teacher or preceptors to the highest spiritual chief in whose ray or descending line one may happen to be. . . . This chain of influence is called the Guruparampara chain.”
“The ties of the soul are: (1) to its own Higher Triad and through It to the Dhyani-Buddha to whom that Triad looks up as the “star”; (2) to the Master whom Karmic kinship of soul-spirit makes our Initiator in the unspoken Mysteries; He very often, almost always, belongs to the same Beam, Ray or School to which we in our Triadic higher aspect belong; (3) to our colleagues and companions who under Karma, past and present, are striving for perfection side by side on the plane of the personal.” (B. P. Wadia, “Extracts from Unpublished Letters”)
“In its abstract sense, Theosophy is the white ray, from which arise the seven colours of the solar spectrum, each human being assimilating one of these rays to a greater degree than the other six. It follows that seven persons, each imbued with his special ray, can help each other mutually. Having at their service the septenary bundle of rays, they have the seven forces of nature at their command. But it follows also that, to reach that end, the choosing of the seven persons who are to form a group, should be left to an expert, — to an initiate in the science of occult rays.” (HPB, “The Beacon-Light of The Unknown”)
“This is the keynote of Occultism, to know the true relation of sounds, colours, and numbers. There are so many. There are seven rays, but what are they? They have got seventy-seven thousand times seven, all kinds of combinations; it takes a lifetime to learn them, and you cannot do it by registering all these in your physical memory. It is a perfect impossibility. You have to use your intuition, and your psychic memory, the memory of your Ego, of the astral. You have to register it on your astral form.” (HPB, “The Secret Doctrine Dialogues” p. 544)
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