A Principle is a universal potential. Principles are universal and eternal.

They are the very Being and Essence of Spirit. Principles are the Divine Mind in operation. In intuitive philosophy they are also known as Rays. The Seven Rays are seven radiations or frequencies. Think of the Seven Rays as pure energy vibrating to specific frequencies, the frequencies being principles. 

We each are centers of individualization for the Divine Spirit. This is why man is said to be made in the image and likeness of God and to be a reflection of His very own Being. Spirit being the formless Principle of Life, the likeness cannot possibly be in the outward form. The likeness between Spirit and man can only be of a mental kind. The word man comes from the Sanskrit manas meaning mind. The individual mind (man) is a concentration of the Universal Mind into individual consciousness. In other words: the mind of man is a miniature reproduction of the mind of God. The mode of man’s mind differs from the mode of Spirit’s mind in that the former is directed towards the individual and particular whereas the latter is directed towards the universal and general, but in quality they are identical. What is universal in Spirit becomes individual in man because man is nothing less than the replication, in individuality, of all that which Spirt is, in universality. Principles are universal; man differentiates (specializes) these universal undifferentiated principles by channeling them through his very own consciousness in order to meet particular needs.

Second Ray of Love = Principle of Expansion into Ever Fuller Life

The prime motive and purpose of the Spirit of Life is to create individual lives and envelop them in an adequate surrounding so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:8-10, KJV). In other words: love is Spirit’s desire for Spirit’s creation to expand into an ever greater fulness of a joyous life.

Fear is the inversion of the principle of expansion leading towards ever greater contraction and limitation. By engaging the thought of fear, we are giving substance to that which has no real substance in itself thereby creating the thing we fear and making it real to us even though it does not exist in the Mind of God. FEAR = false evidence appearing (!) real. Limitation and contraction (to the point of death) have no existence in the Mind of the Ever-Expanding Spirit. Man’s job is to use the creative power of thought affirmatively, that is towards ever greater expansion and fulness of a joyous life.

*Affirmation = moving forward towards expansion | *Negation = moving backward towards contraction

First Ray of Will, Power & Purpose = Centralizing Principle

Spirit’s motive is eternal expansion towards ever greater joy, abundance, health, wealth, in short: towards an ever fuller joyous life. Will is the centralizing Principle, keeping the imagination centered in the right direction; the right direction being that of ever greater expansion of health, joy, abundance. Remember: that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. The purpose of imagination is to form the spiritual prototype (=thought) so it may externalize in matter (=thing). The function of the will is to keep the imagination centered on images of expansion and ever greater fulness.

Inverted will is the misuse of our will in service of fear. Will used affirmatively in service of love (eternal expansion) enables us to go forward into a fuller life. Will used negatively in service of fear (limitation) makes us going backwards in life and leads towards ever greater contraction.

Third Ray of Active Intelligence = Principle of Intelligence

The Principle of Intelligence is inherent in the Principle of Life. Thanks to the involution of Spirit into substance, a universal intelligence to which we might give the name atomic intelligence subsists throughout nature. The opposite pole of atomic intelligence is individual intelligence. The mark of intelligence is responsiveness; the mark of individual intelligence is selection and initiative. For man to move out of the Fourth Kingdom (man) into the Fifth Kingdom (Soul) he has to take the initiative and engage in a process of intelligent growth. The process of intelligent growth involves first the recognition of these principles that constitute our very own being and second the active cooperation of atomic and individual intelligence. The function of intelligence lies in specializing the principles in a way that leads to an expansion of the individual life. To specialize a principle means to facilitate special conditions for the operation of the principle so as to produce new, broader, more expanded experiences that will transcend our past experiences.

Ignorance of the principles and laws of nature is the inversion of the Principle of Intelligence. Ignorance leads towards ever greater contraction and limitation. Intelligence leads towards every greater expansion into an ever fuller life.

Fourth Ray of Beauty = Principle of Harmoniousness | Alpha & Omega

While Spirit is the formless principle of Life, it needs a form to express itself. The vehicle is the form in which the principle functions. The only appropriate form for love to express itself adequately is beauty. Beauty is characterized by the perfect proportions of the parts making up the whole. Beauty is perfect harmony and harmoniousness. The function of beauty is to adequately manifest love in ever greater and greater perfection.

Our invisible thought forms a spiritual prototype which reproduces itself in outer visible conditions. Thoughts are seeds. Inherent in the seed is a self-expansive vitality producing the result.

Thought = Alpha. Thing = Omega.

Everything has its origin in a thought (=Alpha of conception) and finds its completion in the expression of that thought in form (=Omega of completion). The thing exists in the thought and the thought expresses in the thing. While thought is absolute (=independent of time and space), the thing is relative (=dependent of time and space); and the thing is, for that reason, subject to the law of growth and gradual development.

Disproportion and incompletion are the inversion of the principle of beauty and omega. Disproportion leads towards contraction. Proportion allows the harmonious expansion of the indwelling life towards ever greater expansion.

Fifth Ray of Knowledge = Principle of Primary Causation

Man is the creative center of his own world. Our thought has creative power. Every cause has an effect. Thought = cause. Condition = effect. Thought = invisible. Condition = visible. All visible things have their origin in invisible thought. There is no way to escape the law of cause and effect except by the Principle of Knowledge which puts the subject of cause and effect into proper perspective and order:

Primary causation = initiating a new series of cause and effect = thought is independent of conditions

Secondary causation = conditions/circumstances are regarded as cause = thought is contingent on conditions

Man in the Fourth Kingdom works on the plane of secondary causation only and does neither understand why he is surrounded by the circumstances he is in nor that his very own (!) creative thought power is forever externalizing conditions. As a result we keep going in circles where one limitation leads to the next. The awakened man ready to enter the Fifth Kingdom works on the plane of primary causation where thought is not contingent on any conditions and has one purpose only: eternal expansion into an ever fuller life of glory and joy. The awakened man disregards the world of circumstances (= world of effects) altogether and lives on the plane of pure thought, the plane of primary causation.

Secondary causation is the inversion of the principle of primary causation. Secondary causation leads towards contraction and limitation because effects are mistaken for causes. Primary causation leads towards ever greater expansion.

Sixth Ray of Idealism = Principle of Ideas & Idealism

The plane of primary causation is the plane of pure ideas. When we form an ideal pattern (=thought image) by the power of our thought we initiate first cause as far as the thing is concerned, and having moulded first cause into the desired form we can await the externalization of the thought with joyous expectation. Ideally the ideal patterns we form are aligned with the greater Divine Ideal of man. In this way we are using the principle as it is Divinely intended: towards ever greater expansion into a fuller life. The Divine Ideal of man is to move out of our humanity (Fourth Kingdom) into our Divinity (Fifth Kingdom); to expand our identity from I am body to I am Soul. The Fifth Kingdom is our Divine Ideal. Ideally we prepare ourselves to enter this Kingdom. The proper preparation lies in imagining ourselves as beings of pure light, love and glory. Soul is the evolving consciousness. Christ is the perfected consciousness. Christ embodies the ideal manifestation in the individual of the Principle of Life. Let this be the ideal and pattern by which we may be forever guided.

The inversion of the principle of idealism is identification with the reflection (idol worship). The ideal is real. The outward manifestation is a mere reflection. Replace idol worship with ideal worship and you will be forever moving forward in life.

1 = Mineral Kingdom | 2 = Plant Kingdom | 3 = Animal Kingdom | 4 = Human Kingdom | 5 = Soul Kingdom

Seventh Ray of Freedom = Principle of Liberty according to Law

The evolutionary goal of man is to move out of the Fourth Kingdom (man) into the Fifth Kingdom (Soul). The whole purpose of life is to break free from the wheel of rebirth in the human kingdom. Our goal is nothing less than perfect liberty.  Perfect liberty is attained by living our life in alignment with the Principles and Laws of Life. The inverted use of the creative power of thought holds us in the bondage of the wheel whereas its proper use guides us into eternal liberty. Perfect liberty is the realization that man is literally a focal point in which the Spirit of Life expresses Itself. It’s the realization that in expressing Spirit we express ourselves, that I and the Father are one; and that since the prime moving motive of Spirit is to expand into ever greater glory, joy and ecstasy, for all of eternity life will be getting better and better, lighter and lighter, fuller and fuller.

The inversion of the principle of liberty is bondage. The thought that holds us bondage is the thought that we are just a body and that one day we will die. The thought that sets us free is the realization that man’s constitution is threefold – Spirit (Monad | Father), matter (body | Holy Spirit), consciousness (Soul | Son) – and that I and the Father are one.

And thus the circle closes. Principles are the Divine Mind in operation. Man is the reproduction, in individuality, of these same principles. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. The Seven Rays or Seven Principles represent our ideal of perfection. The word perfection comes from the Latin and literally means to make complete, to finish, to bring to full development. The number seven is the numerical equivalence of complete manifestation because it combines the three (spiritual factors) and the four (material factors). The number seven – including the involution of Spirit into matter and the subsequent evolution of matter into Spirit – represents the finished whole. This is why it is said that God created the world in Seven Days. The Seven Days are the Seven Principles. The Seven Principles are an instruction in how to use the creative power of our thought as it is Divinely intended to.

And so in conclusion I would like to invite you to make a commitment here and now to dedicate each one of the sevens days of the week to one of the Seven Principles so as to weave their essence into your very consciousness and so you, too, may become perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.

Since these Seven Principles play such a fundamental role in our life we have created a number of services around the Seven Rays to help create awareness for their existence. Please read the introductory educational write-ups of the pertinent product descriptions below. They each highlight another aspect of the workings of the Seven Rays. Namaste, Gloria

By accepting the idea of Good and Evil, the inverted working of fear is introduced

Think of the Seven Rays as seven primary differentiations of energy or seven types of energy that have been IMPRESSED by Source with seven specific intentions. Our job is to work with these divinely impressed energies and EXPRESS their inherent Divine intent in the lower atmospheres of the Soul: thinking, feeling and acting. But here is what happens: when we intuit abstract divine ideas, which are the origin and source of all the thoughts we think, we distort the divine idea according to our point in evolution. Since we as a human family are only beginning to realize that we live in a world of energies and due to the so-called fall of man which might be defined as the failure of the lower mentality to realize that God is love we naturally end up misusing the energies at our disposal by inverting them. By accepting the idea of Good and Evil, the inverted working of fear is introduced. Inverted energy is imprisoned energy leading towards ever greater contraction. Imprisoned energy needs to be released, freed and returned to Source, to ever greater expansion. This is accomplished by drawing the imprisoned energy into its Soul opposite.

The root of every problem in the world lies in man’s affirmation of negation, that is: in the inverted use of the creative power of thought

The goal of man is to step out of our humanity and into our Divinity. The root of every problem in the world lies in man’s affirmation of negation, that is: in the inverted use of the creative power of thought, in this way giving substance to that which as a principle has no existence. Good = using the creative power of thought towards ever greater expansion. Evil = using the creative power of thought towards ever greater contraction. This is why there is a higher and lower expression of each of the Seven Rays and why we need to transcend the lower and affirm the higher if we wish to consciously step into our Divinity. The Seven Rays complete our ideal for the perfect development of our consciousness. Affirmations help us to reach our evolutionary goal by formulating it: this is how we make universal principles personal. Once our evolutionary goal is clearly formulated, we can go about embodying it. To make affirmations work, we have to (1) step into the divine idea of the affirmation by contemplating and appropriating it, (2) clothe it into mental substance, (3) make it magnetic by charging it with emotional force, and then (4) ground it on Earth via a planned service activity. The science of affirmation is all about the conscious thinking I assuming an affirmative position: affirmative in the sense of the Soul becoming the positive (active, impressing) polarity in relationship to the negatively polarized (passive, being impressed upon) substance of the bodies.

The term hierarchy simply denotes the ladder of life

The term hierarchy, often misunderstood, simply denotes the ladder of life. The ladder of life has infinite rungs. There are kingdoms on the rungs below us (with a more limited level of awareness than man; i.e.: mineral, vegetable, animal) and kingdoms on the rungs above us (with a more expanded level of awareness than man; i.e.: Kingdom of Awakened Souls or Enlightened Masters).  As far as man is concerned, our evolutionary goal is to advance into a Soul-conscious species. In this way we move out of the Fourth Kingdom (man) into the Fifth Kingdom (Soul). Mineral, vegetable,  animal, man and an awakened Soul are equally alive, however, what differentiates one from the other is their level of livingness. Livingness is measured by intelligence. Intelligence manifests itself by responsiveness.  By calling on the Awakened Souls of the Fifth Kingdom, in our reaching out, we stretch ourselves, we expand our consciousness. Our invoking them acts as a magnetic pull or positive pole of magnetic attraction through which we may bridge the gap (in continuity) between the two Kingdoms. We expand our awareness from I am man to I am Soul and we evoke the energy potential of the Seven Rays, latent within our Soul, into outer expression.

We live in two worlds simultaneously: visible and invisible

We live in two worlds simultaneously: visible and invisible. Think of an ashram as a group consciousness that is held together by a common divine purpose. The visible outer plane correspondences of the invisible inner plane ashrams are political groups (First Ray), educational institutions (Second Ray), communication centers (Third Ray), art collectives (Fourth Ray), scientific communities (Fifth Ray), religious organizations (Sixth Ray) and business hubs (Seventh Ray). Think of the aura as a sphere of influence which we each create around the nucleus of our Soul. We may deliberately link up our individual magnetic field with the greater magnetic field and energy vortex of these seven centers in this way quickening the vibratory frequency of our aura and impressing it with the divine intent inherent in the Seven Rays.

Soul is consciousness capable of awareness

Soul is consciousness capable of awareness. Our current evolutionary goal is to become Soul conscious in our brain awareness. Becoming Soul conscious means expanding the awareness of the conscious thinking I from I am body to I am Soul. The conscious thinking I is the Soul imprisoned in the form nature (body), unaware of itself. The conscious thinking I, unaware of itself, is linked with its prototype, the Overligthing Soul that is aware of its identity, via the so-called consciousness thread. Consciousness is magnetic. When the incarnated consciousness reaches up to the Overlighting Soul via invocation asking for immaculate attunement with the higher consciousness it magnetically pulls down the Overlighting Soul, and as the Overlighting Soul responds it magnetically lifts up the incarnated consciousness. This way the Divine merger is brought about in our brain awareness and continuity of consciousness attained.

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