Seven Rays

[William Vollrath]

Where on this site or elsewhere can I find a good explanation and discussion of the Seven Rays?

[William Vollrath]

I have found a good, brief summary on Wikipedia...

[William Vollrath]

It is interesting to note there are seven continents as well as seven rays on the Statue of Liberty's crown, and seven letters in "freedom," "liberty" and "America."

[michaelcarlo]

Do you think it was designed or coincident?

[William Vollrath]

It (the crown) was designed, and probably mainly represents the seven continents and seven seas from which humanity immigrated to America, but it may have also secretly represented the seven rays?!

[Konstantin Zaitzev]

There's a book by E. Wood: http://hpb.narod.ru/SevenRays.htm
It's a very good study, though some of his associations of animals with the rays can be doubtful.

[John Vorstermans]

The Seven Rays can sometimes be a bit of a sidetrack, try looking into something much more profound which some of you allude to. That is the significance of SEVEN itself. Good to do a chart numbering down 1 to 7 and then try and work out the order where everything fits. You can start with the seven rays, then the planets, then the oceans, continents, gods of the greeks and romans, etc. etc. etc and you come up with some amazing correspondences and insights.

Anyone done anything like this?

[John Vorstermans]

Hi Dan,

That is what makes this study so interesting. When you start to look at it like you have so many questions come up and it looks impossible. Your rational is a good one.

The seven planets of Hindu astrology are normally the ones that we use in this case but in reality I don't think that even these are correct. There are millions of bodies in the universe and they all have an inter-relation effecting everything else.

Blavatsky defined the planets associated with the earth in a different way. She said it was not the planet that had an effect on us but rather the intelligence behind the planet. Each planet is simply an aspect of a great being or intellegence, perhaps you could liken a planet to one of these beings chakras?

Because we are in a special relationship (our planetary solar system) each of these planets have a sort of symbiotic relationship to each other. Each takes its turn over a period of ages to exude its influence and we then find a great change is consciousness taking place.

Now not all these planets are visible to the eye or physical at this time. In fact I think only two of the planets in our real solar system are visible at the moment.

So that makes it even more difficult to understand the relationship of the seven.

So it is said anyway.

I know I did not answer your question satisfactory but I hope I gave a hint of how much work is involved in doing this properly. We cannot just look at gods, oceans etc. We have to go in an find the stories and really come to a much fuller understanding.

This is a lifetimes work.

Namaste
John

[Konstantin Zaitzev]

Blavatsky mentioned Vulcan which is substituted by Sun, and some other planet substituted by Moon (Transactions of Blavatsky Lodge).
Bailey had somewhat similar conception thoogh according to her there are 12 planets, 7 "sacred" (i.e. advanced), among which she mentioned Vulcan, and 5 less advanced, anong which is our Earth.
The sacred planets transmit higher aspect of a ray, non-sacred — the lower. The former can be compared with the chelas, the latters — with the ordinary men. Leadbeater also mentioned Vulcan among the 7 main planets, though he also wrote about two behind Neptune (Probably Pluto & Erida). Noteworthy that the latters are abolished now and not regarded as the planets anymore.

[William Vollrath]

Thanks for this observation. Theosophy, like all religions, seems to involve much beyond the visible reality...

[William Vollrath]

In other words, I have concluded that the Seven Rays, Seven Races, Seven Planets, etc. need to be taken symbolically if they are to be meaningful to me. They represent evolutionary paths, not material realities...

[Svaha]

Of the vibration of white light, there are 7 colors in the spectrum for our eyes to see~
Of the vibration of sound, there are 7 notes in the octave of the diatonic, harmonic, major and minor scales. To me, the rays however categorized, are vibrations of the great one light. Each of us is magnetized to a particular vibration of the light- I am predominately of the 6th.

The Secret Doctrine
Start with page 482

[William Vollrath]

This is one of the more insightful, yet simple, observations regarding the Seven Rays...