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Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric PhilosophyESOTERIC PSYCHOLOGY - VOLUME IA TREATISE ON THE SEVEN RAYSVOLUME IBYALICE A. BAILEYCOPYRIGHT 1962 BY LUCIS TRUSTCOPYRIGHT RENEWED 1990 BY LUCIS TRUSTSYNOPSIS OF A TREATISE ON THE SEVEN RAYSVOLUME ISECTION ONEI. Introductory RemarksII.Certain Questions and AnswersIII. Ten Basic PropositionsSECTION TWOI. The Seven Creative Builders the Seven RaysII. The Rays and the Kingdoms in NatureIII. The Rays and ManIV. Some Tabulations on the RaysVOLUME III. The Egoic RayII.The Ray of the PersonalityIII.Humanity TodayVOLUME IIII. The Zodiac and the RaysII. The Nature of Esoteric AstrologyIII. The Science of TrianglesIV. The Sacred and Non-Sacred PlanetsV.The Three Major ConstellationsVI. The Three CrossesVII. The Rays, Constellations and PlanetsVOLUME IVI. The Basic Causes of DiseaseCopyright 1998 LUCIS TRUST
Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric PhilosophyII.III.The Basic Requirements for HealingThe Fundamental Laws of HealingVOLUME VI. Stanzas for DisciplesII. The Fourteen Rules for Disciples and InitiatesIII. The Rays and the InitiationsCopyright 1998 LUCIS TRUST
Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy“Matter is the Vehicle for the manifestationof Soul on this plane of existence, and Soul is theVehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation ofSpirit, and these three are a Trinity synthesizedby Life, which pervades them all.”“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. I. Page 80.Third EditionTHREE SOULS, ONE MANThree souls which make up one soul: first, to wit,A soul of each and all the bodily parts,Seated therein, which works, and is what Does,And has the use of earth, and ends the manDownward: but, tending upward for advice,Grows into, and again is grown intoBy the next soul, which, seated in the brain,Useth the first with its collected use,And feeleth, thinketh, willeth,– is what Knows:Which, duly tending upward in its turn,Grows into, and again is grown« intoBy the last soul, that uses both the first,Subsisting whether they assist or no,And, constituting man’s self, is what Is –And leans upon the former, makes it play,As that played off the first: and, tending up,Holds, is upheld by, God, and ends the manUpward in that dread point of intercourse,Nor needs a place, for it returns to Him.What Does, what Knows, what Is; three souls, one man.From “Death in the Desert”by Robert Browning.FOREWORD[Page xvii] The question arises, each time a book is written which is to be read by earnest aspirants:What line of instruction will carry forward their training with the most speed?—for speed is anessential factor, if the present day unfoldment is to be rightly utilised and the stress and strain in theCopyright 1998 LUCIS TRUST
Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophyworld relieved. The teaching to be given must likewise increase their mental competency, and lead tothat stabilisation of the emotional body which will most rapidly set them free for service. It must beremembered that constant study (of papers), and the apprehension by the ear and eye of statementsanent the Ageless Wisdom, serve only to increase responsibility, or produce brain fatigue and soreness,with subsequent revolt from instruction. Only that which is brought into use in the life is of practicalvalue and retains its livingness. Sincerity is the first thing for which those of us who teach inevitablylook.Let me remind those I reach through these books that the main result I look for is one of group cooperation and understanding, and not that of individual benefit. By studying and reading with care, agroup interplay is set up, the group becomes more closely integrated, the units in it more closely linkedtogether and as a group more closely blended in the unfolding Plan of the treat Ones. We are buildingand planning for the future and for humanity, and not for the personal unfoldment of any particularaspirant. The individual growth is of no tremendous significance. The formation and development of aband of pledged aspirants, trained to work together and to respond in unison to a teaching, is of realmoment [Page xviii] to those of us who are responsible for the training and for the preparation of thegroup of world disciples who will function with freedom and power in a later cycle. You see a tinyportion of the Plan. We see the Plan as it unfolds for a series of lives ahead, and we are today seekingthose who can be taught to work in group formation and who can constitute one of the active units inthe vast happenings that lie ahead, connected with that two-thirds of humanity who will stand upon thePath at the close of the age, and with that one-third who will be held over for later unfoldment. We aretraining men and women everywhere so that they can be sensitive to the Plan, sensitive to their groupvibration, and thus able to co-operate intelligently with the unfolding purpose. It is a mistake to thinkthat the Plan is to train aspirants to be sensitive to the vibration of a Master or to the Hierarchy. That isbut incidental and of minor importance.It is for the purpose of training aspirants so that group awareness may be developed that these bookshave been written. Recognise clearly that you personally do not count, but that the group most surelydoes. Teaching is not given only in order to train you or to provide you with opportunity. All life isopportunity, and individual reaction to opportunity is one of the factors which indicate soul growth.For this, the training school of the world itself suffices.There should be in all impartation of truth no imposition of authority. Aspirants must be left free toavail themselves of the teaching or not, and spiritual work must go forward because of the free choiceand self-initiated effort of the individual student.In the books already published three basic lines of teaching can be traced:First, a relatively new technique has been given as to the control of the body.Second, teaching has been given anent the formation of the New Group of World Servers.Third, the general lines of the magical work of creation have received attention.The first line of teaching concerns the individual and his development; the second indicates the natureand ideals of the group into which he may find his way if he profits by the teaching and learns control;the third, could you but realise it, details in some measure the methods and modes of work during thecoming new age.Copyright 1998 LUCIS TRUST
Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric PhilosophyPonder upon these three main approaches to truth, and think upon them with clarity of thought. Mentalappreciation of their significance will produce understanding and will likewise increase the groupapprehension of the teaching which I have sought to impart. Any student who thinks clearly andapplies the teaching to his daily life is contributing most valuably to the group awareness.Oft an aspirant says to himself: "Of what real use am I? How can I, in my small sphere, be of service tothe world?" Let me reply to these questions by pointing out that by thinking this book into the minds ofthe public, by expressing before your fellow men the teaching it imparts, and by a life lived inconforming with its teaching, your service is very real.This will necessarily involve a pledging of the entire personality to the helping of humanity, and thepromise to the Higher Self that endeavour will be made to lose sight of self in service—a service to berendered in the place and under the circumstances which a man's destiny and duty have imposed uponhim. I mean a renewal of the effort to bring about the purification of all the bodies so that the entirelower man may be a pure channel and instrument through which spiritual force may flow unimpeded. Imean the attaining of an attitudewherein the aspirant desires nothing for the separated self, and inwhich he regards all that he has as something which he can lay upon the altar of sacrifice for the aidingof his brethren. Could all who read this book see the results of such a united effort, there would emergea group activity, intelligently undertaken, which would achieve great things. So many people runhither and thither after this individual or that, or this piece of work or that, and, working with lack ofintelligent co-ordination, achieve nothing and no group results. But united group effort would eventuatein an inspired reorganisation of the entire world, and the elimination of hindrances; there would be themaking of real sacrifices and the giving up of personal wishes and desires in order that group purposesmay be served.Above all, there must be the elimination of fear. With this I have dealt at length in A Treatise on WhiteMagic, and have given likewise certain rules and formulas for its control. How many who have read theteaching profited by the information imparted? Will you not, with determination and because the worldcries out for help, cast away fear and go forward with joy and courage into the future?There has been, behind all the books which I have written, a definite purpose and a planned sequenceof teaching. It may be of interest to you if I trace them for you:The first book issued was Initiation, Human and Solar. This book was intended for the averageaspirant, to lead him on from where he was to a vision of an organised band of teachers who wereseeking to aid humanity (and incidentally himself), and to give some idea of their technique of workand modes of procedure.Letters on Occult Meditation indicated how these teachers could be reached and the discipline of lifethat the treading of the Path involved. These two are especially for aspirants.A Treatise on Cosmic Fire is in an entirely different category. In the last analysis, it is for the guidanceof the initiates of the world, and will lift the aspirant's eyes away from himself and his own growth to avaster conception and a universal ideal. The mark of the initiate is his lack of interest in himself, in hisown unfoldment and his own personal fate, and all aspirants who become accepted disciples have tomaster the technique of disinterestedness. Their eyes have also to be lifted away from the group ofworkers and from the hierarchy which they constitute and to be fixed on wider horizons and vasterCopyright 1998 LUCIS TRUST
Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophyrealms of activity. They great creative Plan, its laws and technique of unfoldment, and the work of theBuilders of the Universe was dealt with; emerging out of the mass of imparted facts, and underlying allthe teaching, was the idea of a great Life with its own psychology and ideas. It was an attempt to givea synthetic picture of the unfolding Mind of God as It works out Its plans through the lesser Sons ofMind. In symbolism and archaic phrases it veiled the truths and principles which lie at the root of thecreative process, and in its entirety is beyond the grasp of the advanced student. At the same time, it isa most valuable compendium of information, and will serve to convey truth and to develop theintuition.The last book, A Treatise on White Magic, is a parallel volume to A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Just asthe first dealt with the psychology of Deity, the work of the Macrocosm, and the laws whereby theSolar Logos works, so this book constitutes a treatise on the psychology of the Son of God and thework of the Microcosm. It intimately concerns His Place in the Larger whole.I have also aided A.A.B. in getting out a translation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is a bridgingbook, intended to show the aspirant the rules whereby the light within him may be developed and thepower of the intuition be brought to bear on all problems and on the phenomena of life itself. This bookwas given the name The Light on the Soul.Here I am fulfilling my intention to write a book on the subject of the Seven Rays. This topic hasalways been of real interest for students, but about these rays little is known. We know, from TheSecret Doctrine, that they are the building Forces and the sum total of all that is in the manifesteduniverse, but their effect in the human kingdom, and their essential quality and nature, remain as yet amystery. It will be necessary for me to avoid the cosmic note, if I may so call it, for I seek to make theinformation of practical value to the student and to the intelligent reader. I shall therefore approach thesubject entirely from the standpoint of the human family and deal with the subject in terms ofpsychological values, laying the foundation for that new psychology which is much needed, and sodealing primarily with the human equation. What I have to say will be a commentary upon anexpansion of the words found in the proem of The Secret Doctrine, that "All Souls are one with theOversoul."We shall, from the outset, accept the fact of the soul. We shall not consider the arguments for oragainst the hypothesis of there being a soul-universal, cosmic, and divine, or individual and human.For our purposes of discussion, the soul exists, and its intrinsic reality is assumed, as a basic andproven principle. Those who do not admit this assumption can, however, study the book from theangle of a temporarily accepted hypothesis, and thus seek to gather those analogies and indicationswhich may substantiate the point of view. To the aspirant, and to those who are seeking to demonstratethe existence of the soul because they believe in its existence, this expression of its laws and tradition,its nature, origin and potentialities will become a gradually deepening and experienced phenomenon.What I indicate and the suggestions I may make, will, I forecast, be demonstrated, in the scientificsense, during the coming Aquarian Age. Science will then have penetrated a little further into the fieldof intangible yet real phenomena; it will have discovered mayhap it has already made this discovery)that the dense and concrete do not exist; it will know that there is but one substance, present in naturein varying degrees of density and of vibratory activity, and tha
Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy
