The Energy of Harmony through Conflict.

Our study today is of profound interest and has a great bearing on the present world situation. I would like to make clear two important facts:

1. The fact that the world war (1914-1945) was quite unavoidable, though the conflict might have been retained upon mental levels, had humanity decided rightly.
2. The fact of the inevitability of the return of the Christ in this era and in the relatively immediate future. We are here dealing with immutable law, for the energies of the various rays move under law; humanity can therefore do naught but accept, determining only what I might [603] call the locale, or the sphere of activity, of both these major events. The determination of mankind to fight out the issues involved in the world war upon the physical plane, at the same time automatically determined the sphere of Christ's activity - as I shall attempt to show you. In many ways, this particular instruction is one of the most important I have yet given because of its essential and obvious implications. We will therefore study the fourth initiation and its relation to the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict.

This fourth ray, as you have several times been told, is out of incarnation, as far as the reincarnating egos or souls of men are concerned. From another angle, however, it is always active and ever present, because it is the ray which governs the fourth kingdom in nature, the human kingdom in the three worlds of strictly human evolution.

It is the dominant energy, always exerting pressure upon the fourth kingdom; this pressure began to exert itself primarily towards the end of the fourth human race, the Atlantean race of men; at that time men began to give evidence of a growing sense of responsibility, and therefore of the power to demonstrate discriminative choice. This led to the great war in the fourth race which culminated in the Flood, to which all parts of the world testify and to which the majority of the world Scriptures bear evidence. In that era, in which the then known world of men was extensively involved, the Black and the White Lodges of adepts were also implicated, and the first major fight between the demonstrators of evil and the Forces of Light took place; it was inconclusive, with the evidence for defeat to be found on the side of the good more than on the side of evil. Under the symbolism of the Flood, it is apparent to students that the fight was focused primarily upon the astral plane, though fought out historically upon the physical plane; it resulted in the destruction of the world by water, as it might be symbolically expressed.

I would like to cover this theme by dividing my subject into the following parts:

1. The particular type of energy involved and its initiatory effect. This concerns the Principle of Conflict as contained in the activity of this fourth ray.
2. The effect upon humanity as a whole. The "Renunciation Initiation" is an expression of the result of the activity of this Principle.
3. The factor of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom as it basically controls Ray IV and implements the return of the Christ, because the potency of the heart center is involved.
4. The effect of this Ray IV in the modern world of nations and of fundamental organizations.
5. The result of this fourth ray activity upon the individual disciple: [605]
   1. In the three aspects of his nature, physical, emotional and mental.
   2. Upon the soul-infused personality.
6. Summation of the whole theme and a forecast of future possibilities.

I shall attempt to deal with this as concisely as possible, and will keep the handling of this subject exceedingly brief, or as brief as its historical importance will permit and its definitive angle will allow. The whole of human history has been conditioned by the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict, and it is this ray which has determined the ring-pass-not within which humanity must work.