The Seven Rays and the Life Cycle
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THE SEVEN RAYS AND THE LIFE CYCLE Richard Bryant-Jefferies At the very heart of the more esoteric Soul, and which has also been described as the psychology presented in the writings of Alice Self. The whole process of evolution as she Bailey are the seven rays. Her system regards sees it places consciousness as the primary each individual as being qualified by particular factor. The physical, emotional and mental qualities of energy. The seven rays are: realms she regards as being the fields within and through which consciousness develops. The First Ray of Will or Power They may therefore be seen as secondary. The Second Ray of Love-Wisdom The life cycle is seen to be divided into The Third Ray of Active Intelligence various stages. At a point approaching mid-life, The Fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict if the necessary development has taken place, The Fifth Ray of Concrete Mind the Soul nature will then begin to exert a The Sixth Ray of Devotion and Idealism growing influence over the developing The Seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order individual consciousness leading to fusion and a staged entrance into realms of consciousness Each ray energy uniquely expresses an more inclusive and universal in nature. This is essential quality of Life. These qualities again a simplification and a generalization. interact and interweave to generate the rich She acknowledges that there are individuals in tapestry of expression through form and which the Soul takes control at a much earlier consciousness that we see in the world. All that age, stimulating profound thought and has been created expresses ray quality, creativity in many forms. It is also a fact that whether we speak of the individual human many visionary thinkers gained their greatest being, a kingdom of nature or a nation of the insights at an early age, a first touch of Soul world. upon a mechanism that is already sensitive The first, second and third rays are called and receptive. Child genius may also, in some the “Rays of Aspect”, the fourth, fifth, sixth cases, result from an early connection with the and seventh are called ”Rays of Attribute”. It is Soul nature, or a connection that was not outside the remit of this paper to expand on broken in the process of coming into this division. The reader is referred to Esoteric incarnation. Psychology Volumes I and II. One point that is Each stage in the individual life cycle worth drawing attention to, however, is that involves both development and crisis. She within the evolutionary process, when suggests the following critical periods: considered on a macrocosmic or universal scale, the Rays of Attribute are synthesized 4-7 year appropriation of the physical into the third ray. There is then a further body synthesizing tendency with the second ray and 7-14 years appropriation of the emotional finally with the first ray. So each life is a body kaleidoscope of differentiation yet the life cycle 21-25 years appropriation of the mental contains a tendency towards a synthesis. body For Alice Bailey, each life is part of a 35 years personality prepared for the greater process of spiritual development in Soul which individual consciousness opened up to 35-42 years Soul appropriation of and became absorbed into a higher state of personality consciousness which she referred to as the 49 years pathway of life service should 1 The S even R ays and the Life-Cycle J ournal of Esoteric Psychology • Volum e 8 • N o. 2 • 1992 have been defined recommended to read her writings. The two 56-63 years decision by the Soul as to volumes of Esoteric Psychology are a good whether life will continue place to start. Bailey also indicates other periods of Appropriation of the Vehicles of significance, mainly in relation to the “co- Expression ordination" of the vehicles as opposed to The life cycle contains a series of "appropriation”. Appropriation follows co- appropriations as vehicles of expression are ordination. We coordinate the mechanism developed and brought into activity. At each through our experiences in life and it is then, if stage of appropriation, the energy of the it is sufficiently integrated and oriented particular vehicle being appropriated will have towards the higher values, that the Soul may a dominant influence upon the development of appropriate it for its use as a vehicle of that individual's consciousness. So, for expression. instance, in the early years of life the ray of the If these stages are worked through and physical vehicle will be a major factor in development takes place then by thirty-five a shaping the child's psyche. Much of the personality mechanism will have been learning that will stimulate conscious growth developed that is suitable for the Soul to work flows from the physical environment. Later, as out its own purpose. It may not be a rounded the emotional vehicle is appropriated, then it's out personality for the Soul may require a ray quality will become the primary impulse certain imbalance in order to fulfill certain shaping the child's world of experience. People demands that will be made upon it. It is who remain with an emotional focus through important to differentiate at this point their lives will be largely qualified by this between the personality mechanism and energy. This is not to say that all facets of this personality consciousness. The aim is for the person's life will be wholly conditioned in this personality consciousness to be fused with that way, but energy associated with the emotional of the Soul. The mechanism remains as the nature will be a major influence. vehicle for Soul-infused expression. There are For the person whose mind nature is other significant factors linked to the age of stimulated and awakened, then the ray of the thirty-five years and these will be described mind will be brought into expression. At first, further on. thought will be largely shaped by emotional It should be noted that Bailey's ideas reactions, but in time thought itself will stretched beyond the concept of there being dominate. The individual's consciousness just one life. She saw a progression of lives becomes more firmly established within the involving a continual reincarnation through mental nature. A further stage sees the which consciousness developed. For many, integration of the personality nature with its personal integration is not possible, or a goal distinctive ray energy having a conditioning for a particular life. For others it will be. Also, influence over all the three vehicles that make many conditioning factors that emerge within up the personality. This ray energy can be an individual life to shape that person’s directed towards extremely selfish ends, or psychological growth may also stem from towards altruistic endeavors. As consciousness karmic influences from past lives that are continues to expand to touch the realm of the being used in the present life by the Soul to Soul, even in some small measure, a trend attract necessary experience. To go deeply into from separateness to universality is this is outside the scope of this article which stimulated. As the Soul's nature is allowed to seeks to look specifically at the life-cycle within unfold and response to its influence increases, an individual life, For the reader who wishes to it's ray energy will also work through into learn more of Bailey's wider vision you are expression, often seen most clearly as 2 The S even R ays and the Life-Cycle J ournal of Esoteric Psychology • Volum e 8 • N o. 2 • 1992 qualifying a person's sphere of service. presents, as the first phase of a two phase From the esoteric perspective we might process. The latter stage, occurring later in life, reflect upon the possibility that what is also she describes as a crisis of expression that occurring is that the Soul is seeking to take a concerns tests and trials in relation to the firm hold of its mechanism. According to Bailey demonstration of the use of Soul energy. She there occurs "a crisis between the thirty-fifth emphasizes that whereas other tests may have and forty-second years, wherein conscious occurred with a focus on a particular level, the contact with the soul is established; the crisis of expression occurs on all planes at once. threefold personality then begins to respond, This may well be linked to something she says as a unit, to soul impulse”.' Could it be this further on in the same volume concerning how that drives unconscious content to the surface, an individuals’ life of service should be clearly its perfection driving imperfection to the defined by the age of forty-nine and that surface? Could it be the light of the Soul that "initiation is often taken ... after passing the breathes new life into the individual, inspiring milestone of half a century". him or her into a new direction? Some will From the angle of esotericism, there is an respond, others will seek deeper immersion important point reached around the age of 56 within their personality natures to avoid the too. Bailey writes that: "unless a certain discomfort of the Soul's influence. measure of fusion [of Soul and personality] is There is also another interesting insight to established by the time fifty-six years of age is be offered in the light of esoteric psychology. attained, it is seldom established later. After Bailey suggests that the first thirty-five years that age, a man may hold to the point achieved of life are essentially a recapitulation of the and foster his aspiration but the dynamic stages of consciousness reached during human submergence of the personality to the will of evolution.