The question emerges in your mind as to whether such a prophecy will indeed be fulfiled; and if unfulfiled, will not that fact militate against much that I have said and prove me unreliable? Let me answer this question by pointing out that those of us who foresee that which may and ought to be are nevertheless well aware that though the fulfilment of the prophecy is inevitable, yet the time factor may not work out as indicated. This will be because the distressed human mechanisms of those to whom the work is given will fail to react either correctly or at the right time. These incoming seventh ray aspirants and disciples may make mistakes and may perform their undertakings in such a manner that delay may eventuate. They are permitted to have the general outline of their task committed to them by their own souls, working under the inspiration of those great and liberated souls we call the Masters of the Wisdom, but there is no coercion under the Plan and no forced and dictated service. [368] Much of the success in the coming momentous years is dependent upon the work done by all who may be affiliated (even slightly) with the New Group of World Servers. If public opinion is educated in the new ideals, the momentum of that growing tide will greatly facilitate the work of these seventh ray executives, and in some cases will constitute for them the line of least resistance. Failure, therefore, will rest upon the shoulders of the world aspirants and disciples, and will not indicate inaccurate prophecy or misinterpreted astrological conditions. In any case, the prophesied end is inevitable, but the time of that end rests in the hands of awakened humanity. The margin of difference will also be only between one hundred and three hundred years. The impulse towards synthesis is now too strong to be long delayed.

Under this seventh ray influence the Masonic Fraternity will come into a new and pronounced spiritual activity and begin to approximate its true function and to fulfil its long-seen destiny. One point it might be of interest here to note. During the period of the activity of the sixth ray the Fraternity fell into a crystallized and sectarian attitude, along with the many other grouped circles. It fell also into the snare of materialism, and the outer form has for centuries been of more importance in the eyes of Masons than the inner spiritual meaning. The symbols and the system of allegories have been emphasized, whilst that which they were intended to convey and to reveal to the initiated has been quite forgotten. Also, the trend of the attention of a lodge of Masons, and the main emphasis, has been potently placed on the function and place of the W.M., and not upon the inner significance of the work upon the floor of the Temple. The lodge has not been regarded as an integrated functioning entity. This must and will be changed, and the potency and the effectiveness of the lodge work and ceremonial will be [369] demonstrated. It will be seen that in the regularity of the rituals and the sanctified formality of the ordained ceremonials lies the true meaning of the work and the use of the Word. The coming era of group work and power and of organized synthetic ritualistic activity will profoundly affect Masonry, as the importance of a central dominating figure passes out with the sixth ray influence and the true spiritual work and function of the lodge itself is understood.

The prime cosmic function of the seventh ray is to perform the magical work of blending spirit and matter in order to produce the manifested form through which the life will reveal the glory of God. Students would be well advised to pause here and reread the section of this treatise in which I dealt with the seventh ray Lord, with His names, and with His purpose. When this has been done, it will be apparent that one of the results of the intensified new influence will be the recognition, by science, of certain effects and characteristics of the work being accomplished. This can already be seen in the work done by scientists in connection with the mineral world. As we have seen in an earlier part of this book, the mineral kingdom is governed by the seventh ray, and to the potency of this incoming ray can be attributed the discovery of the radioactivity of matter. The seventh ray expresses itself in the mineral kingdom through the production of radiation, and we shall find that increasingly these radiations (many of which still remain to be discovered) will be noted, their effects understood and their potencies grasped. One point remains as yet unrealized by science, and that is that these radiations are cyclic in their appearance; under the influence of the seventh ray it has been possible for man to discover and work with radium. Radium has always been present, but not always active in such a manner that we were able to detect it. It is under the influence of the incoming [370] seventh ray that its appearance has been made possible, and it is through this same influence that we shall discover new cosmic rays. They too are always present in our universe, but they use the substance of the incoming ray energy as the path along which they can travel to our planet and thus be revealed. It is many thousands of years since what are now studied as the Cosmic Rays (discovered by Millikan) played definitely upon our planet, and at that time the fifth ray was not active as it now is. Therefore scientific knowledge of their activity was not possible.

Other cosmic rays will play upon our earth as this seventh ray activity becomes increasingly active, and the result of their influence will be to facilitate the emergence of the new racial types, and above all else, to destroy the veil or web which separates the world of the seen and tangible from the world of the unseen and the intangible, the astral world. Just as there is a veil called "the etheric web" dividing off the various force centers in the human body, and protecting the head centers from the astral world, so there is a separating web between the world of physical life and the astral world. This will be destroyed, slowly and certainly, by the play of the cosmic rays upon our planet. The etheric web which is found between the centers in the spine, and which is found at the top of the head (protecting the head center), is destroyed in man's mechanism by the activity of certain forces found in that mysterious fire which we call the kundalini fire. The cosmic rays of which the modern scientist is aware constitute aspects of the planetary kundalini, and their effect will be the same in the body of the planetary Logos, the Earth, as it is in the human body; the etheric web between the physical and astral planes is in process of destruction, and it is of this event which the sensitives of the world and the spiritualists prophesy as an imminent happening. [371]

Much of profound interest is on its way as a result of this seventh ray activity. For one thing, though the animal kingdom reacts but little to this type of influence, yet there are going to be very definite results within the soul of the animal form. The door of individualization or of entrance into the human kingdom has been closed since Atlantean times, but under the new influence it will be partially opened; it will be set ajar, so that a few animals will respond to soul stimulation and discover that their rightful place is on the human side of the dividing door. Part of the reorganization which will go on as a result of the seventh ray activity will concern the relation of humanity to the animal kingdom and the establishing of better and of closer relations. This will lead men to take advantage of another effect of the seventh ray, which is its power to refine the matter out of which the forms are built. The animal body of man has received much scientific attention during the past one hundred year, and medicine and surgery have reached great heights of achievement. The framework of man, his body, and its internal systems (with their diverse rituals) are now understood as never before, and this has been the result of the incoming ray force with its power to apply knowledge to the magical work. When this knowledge is applied intensively to the animal world much new and interesting data will be discovered; when the differences between the physical bodies of the animals and those of humanity have been more closely investigated there will appear a new and very fruitful field of study. These differences are largely in the realm of the nervous systems; not enough attention has been paid for instance to the fact that the brain of the animal is really in the region of the solar plexus, whilst the human brain, the controlling agent, is in the head, and works through the medium of the spinal column. When scientists know exactly why the animal [372] does not use the brain in the head as does man, they will arrive at a fuller knowledge of the law governing cycles.

There is much that could be said, but little of it would, as yet, be comprehended. Until the incoming ray force and all that attends its entry has produced the adequate changes in the nervous system, it will not be possible for more to be made clear. Brain cells, hitherto dormant in even the most advanced thinkers, must be brought into functioning activity, and with this consummated, then more teaching and further elucidation will be possible, - but not till then. Some time must yet elapse before the present human mechanisms are adapted to the registration of that which is new and as yet unknown.