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Roberto Assagioli Gives A Short Introduction to the Seven Rays, the Personality and Soul Rays
By Roberto Assagioli, Feb. 1931, first published in The Beacon.
This is an extract from a five-part article that first appeared in the journal: The Beacon. The editor’s (KS) input in the text is bracketed […]. The above lecture is the third of a series of six addresses that were delivered by Dr. Roberto Assagioli at the International Centre for Spiritual Research at Ascona, Switzerland, in August 1930 and later published in Mrs Baileys Journal. Assagioli developed later Jung’s four types into The Seven Types. If you have interest in the Seven Rays then take a look at Michael D. Robbins Combination of Soul Rays and Personality Rays.
We have dealt in our previous articles with the principal differences of a structural and a dynamic character existing among human beings. We have now to consider the more specific psychological differences, those which are of a qualitative nature and which give the fundamental note, the peculiar essence, to each personality and individuality.
For this deeper and more specific study, modern psychology offers little help; its trend has been chiefly descriptive and analytical; it has not dealt with essential qualities. Therefore we must look elsewhere in our search. The knowledge we want is supplied generously by [esoteric] science through two of its branches. One, is the study of human beings according to the various planetary influences and the different signs of the zodiac. The other is the most illuminating teaching about the seven Rays of development, their inner qualities and functions which is contained in Mrs. Bailey’s books.
We will first take up this second line of investigation.
I must apologise to those who are already acquainted with Mrs. Bailey’s books, if I have to repeat many points which are familiar to them, but it will be necessary in order to complete my subject.
According to ‘A Treatise on Cosmic Fire‘ a Ray is a current of energy emanating from the Solar Logos, which is endowed with a special psychological quality and a distinctive note and has a definite function in macrocosmic and microcosmic evolution.
The Solar Logos manifests Himself thus through seven Rays, three of which are considered major and fundamental, and are called Rays of Aspect, and four minor Rays derived from the former which are called Rays of Attribute. The sum total of these Rays forms the whole of the psychological qualities of the Logos, and constitutes as it were, His divine personality.
Each of the Seven Rays express the dynamic quality of one of the seven Planetary Spirits or Logoi. Yet in each of them, and therefore in each of the planets in which they manifest, as well as in the hierarchy of lesser beings which they include, we find also the other six Rays manifested in a subordinate way.
Considering now the hierarchy of beings with which we are most concerned, the human hierarchy, we find that each human being is under the domination of three Rays, or in other words, is composed of three lines of force, and three fundamental notes; the Ray of the Monad, the Egoic Ray and the Ray of the personality.
The first is the fundamental and essential Ray; it reveals itself and becomes active only at a very high stage of spiritual development, when man has entered fully into the spiritual or superhuman kingdom. Therefore in dealing with human psychology in the strict sense of the word, we have to leave it out of consideration altogether.
The Ray of the personality is that which determines our personal psychology in the usual sense of the term, our temperament, our tendencies, tastes and preferences. It is said to change frequently from life to life. It is this Ray which chiefly determines the psychological type of the ordinary man in whom the Egoic influence is scarcely active.
The Egoic Ray is the most important for those who have definitely entered the path, who have begun to take in hand their personality and to work consciously for their spiritual development; who try to serve and to co-operate with the plan of the Logos.
The knowledge of our Egoic Ray helps us to find our true place and function in that plan: the line of development which best corresponds to our inner nature, the note we have to sound, and the specific dangers and pitfalls we must avoid.
Therefore the study of the Rays is of vital importance to each of us and deserves our most careful attention.
We are taught in ‘A Treatise on Cosmic Fire’ that the one primordial Fire divides and manifests itself into three principal fires: the Fire of the Spirit, the Solar Fire and the Fire of Matter. These three Fires. correspond to the three major Rays:
- The Ray of Will and Power.
- The Ray of Love-Wisdom.
- The Ray of Intelligent Activity.
The last produces through a further differentiation the four minor Rays which are:
- The Ray of Harmony.
- The Ray of Concrete Knowledge.
- The Ray of Devotion and Idealism.
- The Ray of Ceremony, Law and Magic.
Let us examine rapidly the essential nature of each and the psychological qualities which they produce in the human individuals.
1. The Ray of Will and Power
This Ray is the most difficult to understand. The true nature, the intimate essence of Will remains a mystery to man. It is the highest quality, the note of the Spirit itself, it is the mysterious power which has set in motion the great wheel of evolution in order to achieve His hidden purpose and which will re-absorb all in itself when that purpose is realised. It may be considered the unmanifested or transcendental element. It is represented in the spiritually awakened man by the Monad, the Father in Heaven, the Divine Spark whose nature is spiritual Will. But for the ordinary man, whose consciousness is still limited to the three worlds of the personality, the transcendental element is represented by the Ego, which for him constitutes the ensouling Will which has created him, which sustains him and re-absorbs him at the end of the incarnation.
Although, as we have said, the intimate essence of this Ray escapes us, we may say that it reveals itself to us chiefly as the central purpose which ensouls, maintains and urges a life, a being, towards a certain goal, towards a higher realization. We may thus consider it as the deep meaning, the intimate significance and value of a being.
Hermann Keyserling, has intuitively grasped this fact and has used it as the centre of his spiritual conception of life, from which he has worked out many interesting developments in his books, particularly in “Creative Understanding“. According to Keyserling, this Sinn, meaning this deeper significance of each being and each thing, is the primordial principle which is outside manifestation, besides time and space and is a dynamic power which creates all forms of expression. This well describes, I think, the essential nature and function of the First Ray.
This Ray has two aspects which are, in a sense, opposed to each other: the creative and the destructive. Its law is that of synthesis. Its method is described as occult abstraction. This means that it tends to abstract and to extract from every form its life, its ensouling spirit, to blend all the particular essences into a whole, to re-absorb them with all the qualities of power, wisdom and consciousness gained through their experiences on the various planes of manifestation.
One of the functions of the First Ray, when active in manifestation, is that of justice and in this respect it is closely connected with the karmic law and with the hosts of beings which administer it under their rulers: the Maharajas and the Lipikas.
This knowledge of the nature of the First Ray enables us to recoginize the psychological qualities which are its expression on the plane of the Ego and of the personality. These qualities are:
Will, in the ordinary and more concrete meaning of the term; Firmness, decision, concentration; the determination to attain a certain goal regardless of other considerations;
Energy, zeal and a fighting and aggressive spirit;
A sense of justice and the urge to administer it.
These qualities are essentially virile; those which make heroes and apostles. But they have, like any other, their excesses and degenerations when they are over-emphasised, or when they are manifested in the lower aspects of the personality. These lower manifestations are: hardness, cruelty, narrowness, bullying, exaggerated self-assertion, pride, and destructive tendencies.
We find both the higher and the lower aspects of this Ray manifested in the political leaders of humanity and in its military rulers; for instance, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon.
The individual who belongs to this Ray, has several things to accomplish:
First he must try to cultivate the creative and higher aspects of the Ray-energy: he has to transmute personal will into spiritual will, purifying the motives and refining the means of his fighting energies, lifting them to higher planes and placing them in the service of ideal causes and finally of the Logos Himself, thus unifying the individual and the cosmic Will.
Then he has to enlarge the scope of his activities, expressing himself through the sub-rays which are complementary to the First Ray, and which are as we shall see, the Third, the Fifth and the Seventh.
Thirdly, he has to counteract the limitations and excesses of his own Ray, harmonising it with its opposite, which in this case is the Second. The result is a wonderful synthesis of will and love: a will which loves and a love which wills.
Individuals of this Ray are distinctly positive, and are generally extraverts personally, although the deeper nature of will, as occult abstraction, as liberation from form, leads to spiritual introversion.
2 The Ray of Love-Wisdom.
This Ray has a special significance and importance because it manifests the fundamental quality of the present great cycle of the Solar system and of the Solar Logos Himself. According to the teachings of `Cosmic Fire’ the Sun is [esotericly] the heart centre of a greater and mysterious Cosmic Being, inconceivable to us and designated by the phrase the One about Whom naught may be said. This teaching gives us the esoteric explanation and justification of the mystical affirmation: “God is Love”.
While God in the universal and transcendental sense, as the Absolute or Parabrahm, is the All, and we cannot therefore attribute to it any particular note or quality, it is true that the God manifested in our system, that is our God, is essentially Love.
Love was the deep motive which determined manifestation; love upholds it and gives it its rhythm; love guides all beings along the path of return to the Father; it works for the perfection of all that exists. This love is therefore also supreme Wisdom.
While the First Ray has a special connection with the first plane, called Adi, or the sea of Fire, the Second Ray has a special affinity with the second monadic plane, but it manifests also on the complementary planes, the fourth or buddhic, and the sixth or astral plane.
Applying this teaching to human psychology we find that love in the personality expresses itself chiefly on the astral plane as passionate or sentimental love, pervaded with desire and limited to one or to a few individuals. As the personality evolves and becomes more and more aligned with the Ego, its love becomes gradually purer and wider, until it reaches the buddhic level, where it manifests as the love of the Ego, a vast and impersonal love which embraces all humanity.
Thus, while love in its primitive stages has a possessive egoistic and separative quality and with its tenacious attachments, its ensnaring charm and sweetness, is a serious obstacle to man’s spiritual development, in its higher aspects it becomes a powerful means of elevation and expansion, transforming desire into aspiration and the thirst for enjoyment and possession gives way to the urge to self surrender.
In this way it overcomes the narrow bounds of the personality and later with its irresistible and expanding energy, will eventually transcend even the boundaries of the causal body.
This is the problem and the particular test of the individuals belonging to the Second Ray. Such a transmutation and sublimation of love cannot be accomplished without great suffering; yet it is a direct way and in a certain sense the way of least resistance for those belonging to this Ray.
3. The Ray of Intelligent Activity
The Third Ray, with the two preceding Rays forms the triad of the Major Rays. It is, in a certain sense, more evolved and more completely manifested than the other two. This is due to the fact that it was the predominant Ray of the preceding (first) Solar System.
The Third Ray represents divine Life manifested in nature, in every form, in every entity. Its quality is the marvelous intelligence inherent in every atom, in every cell, in every organism. It is the life of the Third Logos, which pervades, vivifies, evolves and transforms all. It is the power of choice, of discrimination, of attraction and repulsion, which operates in a certain degree also in so-called inorganic matter, but which reveals itself to us more fully in the fine reactions, in the wonderful and complicated co-ordinations of living matter.
It is the faculty of response and adaption of matter to the spirit, of the body to the soul. It is at the basis of the manifestation of planets and of all the beings which inhabit them, and it is that which makes evolution itself possible. Therefore, while in a certain sense it represents the pole of matter, it has really a high and very necessary purpose. It is the means through which spirit can manifest; it is that which makes possible the accomplishment of the great Divine Plan.
In humanity the Ray of Intelligent Activity is at the basis of all civilisation: all forms of social life, all technical progress and all culture spring from it. The arts, the sciences and all that is specifically human are primarily the product of this Ray. They are also, to some extents the product of the four minor Rays, but these are derived from, and differentiations of, the Third.
The individuals who belong to this Ray are those in whom the note of activity is prevalent; those who ever try to realize, to incarnate ideas; feelings and purposes. They are vitally interested in all kinds of social activities, in progress, in culture and education. They are typically extraverts, positive and generally Rajasic.
The greatest virtue of this type is the consecration of the life to the realization of ideal purposes. On the other hand, its danger lies in the tendency to give too much importance to manifestation, to the form aspect, to tangible and concrete results, losing sight of the fact that these are only means to an end, and that their significance and value are due only to the spirit which informs them, to the love which inspires them.
Thus, as the other two Rays cannot manifest without the Third, this in its turn acquires from the others its true value, its dignity, its spiritual purpose. Only in the harmonious blending and synthesis of the three, the divine Will is fully expressed.
4. The Ray of Harmony
The fourth Ray is one relatively easy to define and comprehend. Its fundamental quality, harmony, expressed itself as sound, rhythm, equilibrium, and beauty.
In the first place artists belong to this Ray, but also all those who, without being creators, feel specifically the charm of harmony and beauty.
The civilization of ancient Greece is the most characteristic example of the collective expression of the energy of the Fourth Ray.
The plane with which this Ray is specially connected is the Buddhic, the plane of harmony, of unification and bliss. It is also the plane of intuition, and this fact indicates another characteristic of this Ray. Fourth Ray individuals know and realize through feeling and intuition rather than through thought and study. Thus they belong definitely to the intuitive type which we have previously mentioned.
Among the higher manifestations of this Ray is the use of the occult power of sound. Music and sounds can be used to manipulate matter and to build forms through the use of the Law of this Ray, the Law of Magnetic Control.
To the energy of this Ray and of this Law we owe our rapidly increasing knowledge and control of the fourth ether (the physical plane correspondence of the fourth or buddhic plane), which enables us to utilize electricity in new ways and to find and use new methods of healing. And as harmony is proportion, and therefore is produced by the relationships of quantities and numbers, higher mathematics is also an expression of this Ray.
From a psychological standpoint, we observe that Fourth Ray individuals evolve chiefly through the outer and inner realization of beauty and harmony. We frequently find in them a pagan trend, and they resent all religious and spiritual methods which appear to them inimical and unappreciative of form and of the aesthetic emotions; for instance, such ascetic methods as certain rigid Buddhist and Christian disciplines advocate.
Fourth Ray individuals are extraverts. They find even God through beauty; first, through the beauty of created things, then of souls, then of laws and of the universal order and harmony. Thus they rise, climbing the platonic stairway which from sensuous beauty reaches up to ideal and formless beauty. When they tread the spiritual path they first harmonise themselves; then they realize the notes and tones of other beings and they try to harmonise themselves with those so as to eventually form the perfect symphony.
Another line of development which is often followed by individuals on this Ray is that of the sublimation of love, the transmutation of astral into buddhic energy.
5. The Ray of Concrete Knowledge
The fifth Ray is essentially manasic. Individuals on this Ray are urged by the desire to know the universe, the not-self, to discover its laws, to dominate and to utilize it. They are the scientists, the inventors, all those whose occupation is that of using intelligently the forces and the materials existing in the Cosmos; not only those of the physical plane but all that are to be found on the various planes of manifestation.
The law corresponding to this Ray is the Law of Fixation. This Law operates chiefly on the fifth plane, the mental, and its correspondent or cosmic levels is the great Law of Karma. “As a man thinketh, so is he”, that is, according to his thoughts are his desires and his acts, and consequently his future conditions. This Law has been called the Law of Fixation, in the first place because this name indicates the power which the Thinker has to determine his destiny; in the second place, because the Ego develops the faculty of creating concrete and stable thought forms, and to dominate, to fix through them the fluctuations of the astral nature. It is the law through which the evolving human unit builds up the causal body fixing the matter which composes it, in the course of a long series of lives.
The specific function of the fifth plane and of the Fifth Ray force, is that of dominating the sixth, the astral and of forming a bridge to the fourth, the buddhic. Insofar as this force serves these purposes it is useful and necessary. But in many individuals, especially nowadays, the lower manas is overdeveloped, becomes isolated and an end to itself, creating a barren intellectualism, a lifeless technicality, mental self-sufficiency and pride.
The development of the manasic principle is very necessary but it constitutes a critical point in man’s evolution. […] The danger of the overdevelopment and crystallization of manas is greatest for the fifth Ray individuals. In order to avoid this danger they must control, harmonise and direct the manasic force by the love principle. Therefore, the specific line of development and the chief method of meditation for the Fifth Ray individuals is that of the intense application of the concrete mind to the service of the race and to the control of the lower nature.
The Fifth Ray has a special significance and importance to the aspirant and to the disciple because this is the Ray on which the mystic becomes an [esotericist].
6. The Ray of Devotion and Idealism
Individuals on this Ray are distinguished by an intense and often rather an excessive love for a personality, or for an idea; by an ardent devotion to a concrete or an abstract ideal. To this Ray belong those Christian mystics and saints who had an ardent personal devotion for Jesus; in fact, many of the devotional mystics of every religion and every epoch.
To this class belong also those idealists who have consecrated themselves to a specific cause, practical or social, which they firmly believe to be a panacea for human ills. Among them we find socialists, philanthropists, and reformers of all kinds. The higher representatives are the apostles and benefactors of humanity; the lower types are the fanatics and cranks.
The plane which corresponds to this Ray is the sixth, or astral. The Law of this Ray is the Law of Love; a passionate love which has a particular quality of self-surrender. This creates in some cases a passive and feminine attitude which is apparent in many mystics, whose soul assumes a feminine role. They speak of Christ as the Divine Bridegroom and allude to a passive union with Him. The easiest line of development for Sixth Ray individuals is, like that of the Fourth and Second Rays, the transformation and sublimation of love.
7. The Ray of Order, of Ceremonial and Magic
This is the Ray on which matter, forces and entities are submitted to rule and discipline. It is the Ray in which forms are built, adapted and co-ordinated according to the needs of the respective entities which they have to serve, and in which these in their turn are co-ordinated and subjected to a collective entity of a wider range. Individuals whose paramount interest is in organisation, scientific management, discipline, ritual, ceremony and magic are on this Ray.
The Seventh Ray type is positive, masculine and extravert. It has been said that the Seventh Ray is coming rapidly into power and this is strikingly confirmed by the growing and widespread interest in the subjects and activities just mentioned.
Partly as a spontaneous development, partly owing to the pressure of the economic crisis, the problem of organisation is now in the foreground of all departments of human activity.
[…]The less obvious but deeper, and in a certain sense more far reaching and dangerous manifestation of the Seventh Ray, is the rapidly growing interest in magic. This has been observed also by some who are outside of [esoteric] movements; for instance, by Hermann Keyserling, who in his very suggestive book, ‘Men as Symbols‘ published in 1927, states definitely: “Today the hour of the magician, as opposed to the mere scholar is again striking.”
Much of the immediate future of humanity will depend on what kind of magicians and on what lines of magic will prevail; whether it will be the selfish, acquisitive and dominating type, or the beneficent and constructive white magician.
The Law of this Ray is called the Law of Sacrifice and of Death: the sacrifice of the spirit which accepts the limitations of form; the sacrifice of individuals who subordinate themselves to the law and discipline of group organisation; the death of forms when they have served their purpose.
The method of development for individuals on this Ray is to understand and intelligently apply the law to one’s own life, and to the service of humanity.
May I suggest to each of the readers to pause a while and to ask himself or herself : “To which of these Rays do I belong?” It is a useful exercise of self-analysis and self-knowledge.
In some cases the recognition will be instantaneous and sure; in others it may not be so clear. This is due to the fact that the Ray of the Ego and the Ray of the personality are often different and that they are both manifesting themselves in various degrees in our lives.
Relationships Between the Rays
The study of the qualities and methods of the different Rays is interesting and illuminating, but that of their vital relationships, of their harmonious or inharmonious interactions, of their difficulties of adjustment, is even more interesting, as it shows the source of many misunderstandings, antipathies and conflicts arising among men and points the way to their elimination.
In examining these relationships we find that the Rays of alternate numbers are congenial to each other, while those directly following each other are apt to clash. We have an interesting analogy in the musical notes: For instance, C (do) E (mi) G (sol) make a perfect chord while C (do) and D (re) or F (fa) and G (sol) create a dissonance.
Thus the First, Third, Fifth and Seven Rays are harmonious to each other and represent a definite line of expression and development which may be broadly described as positive, masculine and mental, and the Second, Fourth and Sixth Rays have a corresponding affinity to each other and represent the negative, feminine, feeling and intuitive line.
Applying this individually, we find that when the Ray of the personality and the Ray of the Ego belong to the same group the life of the individual is generally harmonious; it has a definite line and homogeneity, but it is apt to be one-sided and static. Instead, when the personal and individual Rays belong to different groups there are often inner strife and difficulty of adjustment. The man is divided within himself; his conscious and sub-conscious tendencies clash and, in the language of psychoanalysis, he is particularly subject to repressions and complexes. Yet while these complications and struggles entail much suffering, they often produce richer and more vital experiences, and result in greater spiritual progress.
It would be most interesting to study the various combinations created by the different pairs of Rays expressed respectively in the personality and the individuality, and to apply it to specific individuals. But this subject would require a course of lectures in itself. I will only mention that a good illustration of this analysis, referring to the combination of the Egoic Second Ray with the personal Fifth Ray is given in the “Letters on Occult Meditation,” page 20.
Similar relationships and reactions may be observed between the qualities of the Rays, manifesting in different individuals and groups. We often find misunderstandings and conflicts between First and Second Ray individuals, representing the qualities of power and love and between Fourth and Fifth Ray individuals represented for instance, by the artist and the scientist. The clash between the Sixth and Seventh Rays, between the man of devotion or the idealist, and the magician and ritualist is particularly acute; it is very widespread just now, owing to the fact that the Sixth Ray influence of the Piscean cycle is being superseded by the growing assertion of the Seventh Ray influence and this difficult and inharmonious condition is one of the causes of the confusion, the current strife now apparent in every phase of life.
I think that this realization combined with an intelligent good will can do much to clarify the situation and to hasten a harmonious and constructive solution.
As a conclusion of this brief and inadequate survey, let us emphasise again that the Rays are living streams of Divine Energy and that the study of their nature and qualities is indeed the study of the qualities of Life in manifestation, the psychology of God incarnate and of the evolving Gods: the human Souls.
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