Ten Basic Propositions of Esoteric Psychology

In concluding this section of our treatise, and before starting on our real study of the rays, I seek to formulate for you the fundamental propositions upon which all this teaching is founded. They are for me, a humble worker in the Hierarchy, as they are for the Great White Lodge as a whole, a statement of fact and of truth. For students and seekers they must be accepted as an hypothesis:

• One: There is one Life, which expresses Itself primarily through seven basic qualities or aspects, and secondarily through the myriad diversity of forms.
• Two: These seven radiant qualities are the seven Rays, the seven Lives, Who give Their life to the forms, and give the form world its meaning, its laws, and its urge to evolution.
• Three: Life, quality and appearance, or spirit, soul and body constitute all that exists. They are existence itself, with its capacity for growth, for activity, for manifestation of beauty, and for full conformity to the Plan. This Plan is rooted in the consciousness of the seven ray Lives.
• Four: These seven Lives, Whose nature is consciousness and Whose expression is sentiency and specific quality, produce cyclically the manifested world; They work together in the closest union and harmony, and cooperate intelligently with the Plan of which They are the custodians. They are the seven Builders, Who produce the radiant temple of the Lord, under the guidance of the Mind of the Great Architect of the Universe.
• Five: Each ray Life is predominantly expressing Itself through one of the seven sacred planets, but the life of all the seven flows through every planet, including the Earth, and thus qualifies every form. On each planet is a small replica of the general scheme, and every planet conforms to the intent and purpose of the whole.
• Six: Humanity, with which this treatise deals, is an expression of the life of God, and every human being has come forth along one line or other of the seven ray forces. The nature of his soul is qualified or determined by the ray Life which breathed him forth, and his form nature is colored by the ray Life which - in its cyclic appearance on the physical plane at any particular time - sets the quality of the race life and of the forms in the kingdoms of nature. The soul nature or quality remains the same throughout a world period; its form life and nature change from life to life, according to its cyclic need and the environing group condition. This latter is determined by the ray or rays in incarnation at the time.
• Seven: The Monad is the Life, lived in unison with the seven ray Lives. One Monad, seven rays and myriads of forms - this is the structure behind the manifested worlds.
• Eight: The Laws which govern the emergence of the quality or soul, through the medium of forms, are simply the mental purpose and life direction of the ray Lords, Whose purpose is immutable, Whose vision is perfect, and Whose justice is supreme.
• Nine: The mode or method of development for humanity is self-expression and self-realization. When this process is consummated the self expressed is the One Self or the ray Life, and the realization achieved is the revelation of God as the quality of the manifested world and as the Life behind appearance and quality. The seven ray Lives, or the seven soul types, are seen as the expression of one Life, and diversity is lost in the vision of the One and in identification with the One.
• Ten: The method employed to bring about this realization is experience, beginning with individualization and ending with initiation, thus producing the perfect blending and expression of life-quality-appearance.

This is a brief statement of the Plan. Of this the Hierarchy of Masters in Its seven divisions (the correspondences of the seven rays) is the custodian, and with Them lies the responsibility in any century of carrying out the next stage of that Plan.

From: Bailey, Alice. Esoteric Psychology.