III. The Rays and Man

I have now dealt with one of the basic problems confronting the race at this time. I interpolated my comments on the subject of sex at that particular point because it made a fitting conclusion to our study of the rays in connection with the animal kingdom.

Man is a living entity, a conscious son of God (a soul) occupying an animal body. Here lies the point. He is therefore in the nature of a link, and a far from missing link. He unifies in himself the results of the evolutionary process as it has been carried on during the past ages, and he brings into contact with that evolutionary result a new factor, that of an individual self-sustaining, self-knowing aspect. It is the presence of this factor and of this aspect which differentiates man from the animal. It is this aspect which produces in humanity a consciousness of immortality, a self-awareness and a self-centeredness which make man truly to appear in the image of God. It is this innate and hidden power which gives man the capacity to suffer which no animal possesses, but which also confers on him the ability to reap the benefits of this experience in the realm of the intellect. This same capacity, in embryo, works out in the animal kingdom in the realm of the instincts. It is this peculiar property of humanity [312] which confers upon it the power to sense ideals, to register beauty, to react sensuously to music, and to enjoy color and harmony. It is this divine something which makes of mankind the prodigal son, torn between desire for the worldly life, for possessions and experience, and the attractive power of that center, or home, from which he has come.

Humanity is the custodian of the hidden mystery, and the difficulty consists in the fact that that which man conceals from the world is also hidden from himself. He knows not the wonder of that which he preserves and nourishes. Humanity is the treasure-house of God (this is the great Masonic secret), for only in the human kingdom, as esotericists have long pointed out, are the three divine qualities found in their full flower and together. In man, God the Father has hidden the secret of life; in man, God the Son has secreted the treasures of wisdom and of love; in man, God the Holy Spirit has implanted the mystery of manifestation. Humanity, and humanity alone, can reveal the nature of the Godhead and of eternal life. To man is given the privilege of revealing the nature of the divine consciousness, and of portraying before the eyes of the assembled sons of God (at the final conclave before the dissolution) what has lain hidden in the Mind of God. Hence the injunction before us today (in the words of the great Christian teacher) to possess in ourselves "the mind of Christ." This mind must dwell in us and reveal itself [313] in the human race in ever greater fullness. To man is given the task of raising matter up into heaven, and of glorifying rightly the form side of life through his conscious manifestation of divine powers.

This is the coming glory of the Aquarian Age; this is the next revelation of the evolutionary cycle, and such is the task of the immediate future. The true drama of this triple relationship (of which physical sex, as we have seen, is but the symbol) will be enacted on a large scale in the life of the modern aspirant during the next fifty years. We shall see what is called symbolically "the birth of the Christ," or the [314] second birth, taking place in many lives, producing on earth a large group of the spiritually newborn. They will be those who have brought together, consciously and within themselves, the two aspects of soul and body, and thus have consummated the "mystical marriage." The aggregate of these individual happenings will produce a group activity of an analogous kind, and we shall see the emergence on the physical plane of "the body of the Christ," and the appearance of the manifested Hierarchy. This is what is happening today, and all that we see going on around us in the world is but the pangs and the travail which precede this glorious birthing.

It is indeed and in truth from glory to glory that we go. The past glory of individualization must fade away in that of initiation. The glory of the slowly emerging self-consciousness must be lost to sight in the wonder of the group consciousness of the race, and this the foremost thinkers and workers today most ardently desire. The glory that can be seen faintly shining in humanity, and the dim light which flickers within the human form, must give place to the radiance which is the glory of the developed son of God. Only [315] a little effort is needed, and the demonstration of a steady staying power, to enable those who are now on the physical plane of experience to evidence the radiant light, and to establish upon the earth a great station of light which will illumine the whole of human thought. Always there have been isolated light bearers, down the ages. Now the group light bearer will shortly be seen. Then shall we see the rest of the human family (who respond not yet to the Christ impulse) having their progress facilitated towards the path of probation. The work will still be slow, and much yet remains to be done; but if all the aspirants of the world and all the disciples at work in the world today will submerge their personal interests in the task immediately ahead, we shall have what I might pictorially call the opening of a great station of light on earth, and the founding of a power house which will greatly hasten the evolution and elevation of humanity, and the unfoldment of the human consciousness.

However, it is interesting to trace parallels, and it is becoming obvious to the careful student that the emergence of the teaching on the rays has happened at a time when the scientist is announcing the fact that there is naught to be seen and known save energy, and that all forms are composed of energy units and are in themselves expressions of force. [316] A ray is but a name for a particular force or type of energy, with the emphasis upon the quality which that force exhibits and not upon the form aspect which it creates. This is a true definition of a ray.