Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00277)

>From C.W. Leadbeater's THE MASTERS AND THE PATH:

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THE MASTER DJWAL KUL' S TABLE 

It is necessary at this point, if we are to understand at all this 
part of the work of the Masters, to digress a little and say 
something of what is meant by the Seven Rays. This is a matter of 
considerable difficulty. Long ago we received some information, very 
incomplete certainly, but still very valuable, about these Rays. I 
remember well the occasion on which it was given to us. Mr. Cooper-
Oakley and I and a Hindu brother were sitting talking on the roof at 
Adyar in the very early days, when there was only the one 
headquarters house and twenty-nine acres of half-jungle behind it; 
and there came to us suddenly the Master Djwal Kul, who was at that 
time the chief pupil of the Master Kuthumi. He gave us a great deal 
of teaching in those days, and was always very kind and patient, and 
while He sat and talked to us that day this question of the Rays 
came up. Mr. Cooper-Oakley in his characteristic way said: "Oh, 
please, Master, will you tell us all about the Rays?" 

There was a twinkle in our Teacher' s eye as He said: "Well, I 
cannot tell you all about them until you have reached a very high 
Initiation. Will you have what I can tell you, which will be partial 
and inevitably misleading, or will you wait until you can be told 
the whole thing?" Not unnaturally we thought that half a loaf was 
better than no bread, so we said we would take what we could get. We 
noted down the very interesting information that He gave, but much 
of it was incomprehensible to us, as He had foretold. He said: "I 
cannot tell you any more than that, for I am bound by certain 
pledges; but if your intuition can make out more I will tell you 
whether you are right." Even that little fragmentary information
was of very great value to us. 

The following Diagram 4 is the table of Rays and their 
characteristics which He then gave to us: 

It was explained that the religion written opposite each Ray is not 
to be taken as necessarily a perfect exposition of it, but is simply 
that which now remains on earth as a relic of the last occasion on 
which that Ray exercised dominant influence on the world. The Magic 
of the First Ray and the characteristics of the Seventh were not 
given, we may imagine the first to be kriyashakti and the second to 
be co-operation with the Deva kingdom. The meaning of the Birth of 
Horus could not be explained, but one of the characteristics of the 
Fourth Ray was stated to be the use of the forces of action and 
interaction-- the male and female forces of nature, as it were. 
Whenever phallicism occurs in the various religions, it is always 
due to a materialization and misconception of some of the secrets 
connected with this Ray. The true development of the Seventh Ray 
would be communication with and instruction from the higher Devas. 

[Table deleted in this posting]

....After what I have said above it should be clear that the 
information that has as yet reached us about the Rays is 
fragmentary. It is not only not a full account of the subject, but 
it is not even a perfect outline, for we were plainly told that 
there were huge gaps in the description given to us, which could not 
possibly be filled up till much later. So far as we know, very 
little has hitherto been written on this subject, and that little so 
guardedly expressed as not to be at all readily intelligible, and 
occult teachers are markedly reticent when questioned about it.¹ 

¹ While the first edition of this book was passing through the
press an important work on the subject appeared-- The Seven Rays, by 
Professor Ernest Wood. The material which it gives is illuminative 
and is presented from quite a new angle.