Synthesis

(November, 2003)

Synthesis may be defined as the activity of bringing that which is separate into a condition of unity. It is, in essence, the energy of relationship which creates at-one-ment.

Now energy is potential activity, force is activity, and substance or appearance is the product of activity.

One analogy for this is a boulder balanced on the edge of a cliff. So long as the boulder remains balanced on the edge, it contains kinetic energy, or potential activity. If the boulder is pushed over the edge, that potential becomes activity or force. Once the boulder strikes the ground, that activity becomes appearance or substance.

Thus, synthesis may be described as creatively relating the many into one, by moving potential unity into the appearance of at-one-ment.

Now the Energy of Synthesis has been called a “new” energy and the Eighth Ray. As a Ray, it has been associated with a number of colors, including burgundy, magenta, and violet. However, in order to understand the nature of the Synthetic Energy, and associate a color with it, we must first place it in the context of the other Ray Energies.

The Nature of The Rays

The Seven Rays can be viewed a number of ways, depending on how we approach them. The rays can be considered as:

Mountain Deva

A. Laws: These “laws of consciousness” are outlined or de­fined by the word or phrase associated with each ray. Thus: 1. The First Ray of Divine Will 2. The Second Ray of Love-Wisdom 3. The Third Ray of Divine Intelligence 4. The Fourth Ray of Harmony (Through Chaos) 5. The Fifth Ray of Cosmic Definition or Equation (Concrete Science and Knowledge) 6. The Sixth Ray of Ideation (Devotion to an Ideal) 7. The Seventh Ray of Divine Law and Order (Ceremonial Magic) B. Devic Lords or Life Forms: Each of the Rays is also a sub­stantial life form or Deva. Unlike human beings, who are Souls that have bodies, these Devic Lords are bodies of energy that have Souls. The Devic Lord of a planetary Ray interpenetrates every portion of that planet, supplying it with the Ray Energy which is her being.[1] C. Energies: Energy is the first aspect of the substance trinity of energy, force, and matter, and is potential activity. That is, the Seven Rays are the positive energy which produces force or activity.

Now some wonder if the rays are a waveform and if they have a frequency (as do the colors of visible light). The answer is no. The Seven Ray energies do not have waves or frequencies because they are the potential which produces waves and frequencies.

An example of this would be the wound rubber band in a toy air­plane. As long as the rubber band is wound up it is a po­tential source of energy. Once the propeller is released and allowed to spin, that energy is converted into force or activity.

Thus, while the Rays are not activity or appearance, they do produce it. And while the Rays are not light or color, they are precipitated into the world of affairs (in part) as light and color.

E.P. I (i.e., Esoteric Psychology, Volume I), pgs. 128 - 129

As a result, each of the Seven Rays is associated with a particular color or colors. And, as people become aware of the Synthetic Energy, they wonder about its color.

However, before attempting to answer this question, it would be wise to both:

1. Review the subject of color, and
2. Determine which level of the Rays—Cosmic, Solar, or Planetary—we are discussing.

Color

Visible colors can be divided into two types:

1. Pigments or reflected light
2. Direct or radiant light

The color wheel above illustrates the three primary colors of both types, reflected and radiant.

Pigments include light that is reflected from a colored object such as paint, ink, clothing, trees, flowers, etc. These colors are subtractive, meaning that when you add them together they get darker, and adding their three primary colors (Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta) produces black.

Radiant light, or light that comes from a light source, is additive, meaning that when you add them together they get lighter and brighter. Adding together the three primary colors of radiant light (Red-Orange, Green, and Blue-Violet or “red, green, and blue”) produces white light.

This can be quite confusing to those of us who were taught (in art class) that the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. While that is true with pigments, the actual shades of those colors that professionals (such as printers) use are Magenta, Yellow, and Cyan.

However, both of these color systems refer to visible light—that is, light that is visible to the modern physical-dense human eye.

As mentioned above, the Seven Rays are emanations that become energy, force, and substance when reflected into the three lower worlds. That energy, force, and substance is in turn reflected into the physical-dense world of affairs, becoming the visible colors that are outer expressions or physical precipitations of the Rays.

Thus, while the “colors” of the Seven Rays are not visible light, they have correspondences in colors with which we are familiar.

The question is, which colors—pigments or radiant light?

There appears to be a correspondence between the three Major Rays and the three primary colors, and between the four rays of attribute and the secondary colors (those colors produced by combining two of the primary colors in equal proportions). However, what those correspondences are depends in part on where we look.

For instance, if we look for correspondents between the three Major Rays and the three prime colors of radiant light, we will find that Red corresponds to First Ray, Indigo to Second, and Green to Third.

However, because the physical-dense substance of our system still carries some of the impression and quality of the previous Solar incarnation, when light is reflected from a physical-dense form it picks up some of that old quality. This produces subtle alterations in the correspondences between the Rays and colors. For instance, while reflected red still corresponds to First Ray, blue corresponds to Second, and yellow to Third.

Thus, the correspondence between the colors and the Rays differs depending on whether one is referring to radiant light or pigments.

This must be kept in mind as we explore the question of the color of synthesis, for it answers a number of apparent contradictions.

The following quotes from the works of Alice A. Bailey and Lucille Cedercrans provide pertinent information. The italics have been added for emphasis.

Since the above associates the “three major rays” with “red, blue and yellow”, D.K. is apparently referring to the rays as they express through reflected color. This is not, of course, a matter of right or wrong, but simply of context.

D.K. is here referring to the Second Ray or Divine Love-Wisdom, before it is precipitated into the energy, force, or substance of the three lower worlds. The Second Ray is then the Ray of Synthesis, to which the rays derived from it will be uplifted, and its color is Indigo. This is confirmed in the following:

Now it is here that we see another apparent conflict in the colors of the Rays. Where in an earlier quote D.K. assigned red, blue, and yellow to the Three Primary Rays, he here assigns indigo-?, indigo-indigo, and indigo-green.

In this case, however, the apparent conflict is due to the various levels of the rays.

The Levels of the Rays

This is, again, a matter of context. In the above quotes, D.K. refers to both “Cosmic Rays” and to the fundamental Ray of our present solar system.

The Seven Cosmic Rays emanate from the center of our Cosmic Life, the One About Whom Naught May be Said. The energy of the One Life may be considered the “white light” which is refracted into seven sub-tones or rays, each of which is again refracted into sub-tones. Our Solar System is a Second Cosmic Ray system. That is, it aspires to and is attempting to embody and realize the Cosmic Second Ray of Divine Love-Wisdom, or Indigo. However, ours is not the only such system. Indeed, we may speculate that every such system is aspiring to embody its overshadowing ray energy, and that each qualifies that “Solar white light” in its own way, giving it a quality and tone peculiar to that life.

This must be kept in mind when working with the Energy of Synthesis and its sub-tones, which are presently being brought to this planetary life directly—via the triangle of the Avatar of Synthesis (Cosmic First Ray), the Christ (Second Ray), and the Lord of the World (Third Ray) —without the intervention of the Solar Life. This triangle is now bringing the Cosmic Energy of Synthesis directly to our planetary life, where it is received and stepped down in frequency by that triangle.

That stepped-down Energy is then received by the Synthetic Ashram—formed by the triangle of Master M., Master D.K., and Master R.—again stepped down in frequency, and radiated out to the Ashramic Group Life of the Synthetic Ashram.

The Group Units within the Synthetic Ashram receive that energy from the Synthetic Monad, step it down in frequency, and, using the Ceremonial Magic of Consciousness, radiate it out to the body receptive of the Ashram.

Thus, since that Synthetic Energy is being brought directly to this planetary life—without passing through the Solar Life—it has a somewhat different quality than that of the Ray that reaches and is differentiated by the Solar Life. Thus, the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh aspects of the new Synthetic Energy are not quite the same as the Seven Solar Rays, even though they derive from the same source and we may refer to them with the same terms.

Within our Solar System, Cosmic Second Ray or “Indigo” is refracted into seven sub-tones or Solar Rays. One may, for instance, envision Cosmic Indigo passing through a prism to become the seven colors or Rays of our Solar Logos.

Now within the Solar System, our Planetary Life is attempting to embody the Third Solar Ray of Intelligent Activity. Thus the Planetary Logos is, in effect, helping the Solar Logos realize Divine Love via Intelligent Activity. In the process, the Solar Logos refracts the Third Solar Ray into seven sub-tones or Seven Planetary Rays, the Rays whose effects we encounter in our daily life and affairs.

Thus we have, for our consideration:

Seven Cosmic Rays Seven Solar Rays Seven Planetary Rays

While the character of each of the Seven Rays remains consistent throughout its various divisions, its quality is subtly different from level to level. Thus, the color associated with a particular Ray may be different depending on whether it is the Cosmic, Solar, or Planetary version or refraction of that Ray.

When we put all this together—the types of colors and the levels of the Rays—we have the context necessary to approach an understanding of the colors associated with the rays.

For instance, in one of the lists quoted above, D.K. divides the Second Cosmic Ray or Indigo into seven sub-rays, the Seven Rays of our Solar System. At this level, the colors of the Rays are consistent with the Primary Colors of radiant light. Although the first sub-ray is not listed, the second sub-ray is Indigo-indigo, and the third sub-ray is Indigo-green.

Now it is apparent from all this that the Cosmic Ray to which our Solar Logos aspires, and the base color from which the Rays of our Solar System are derived and to which they are raised or synthesized, is Cosmic Love or “Indigo”.

We may imagine the Cosmic “Indigo” passing through the prism of our Solar System and being refracted into the seven Solar Rays. If we use the above quote as a guide, and fill in the gaps with a few more comments from D.K. and R., we may list the Seven Solar Rays as follows:

The Solar Rays

The colors of the Second, Sixth, and Seventh Solar Rays can be particularly difficult to determine from our reference texts. For instance, while the Second Ray is typically associated with “blue”, in the above reference it is specifically associated with “indigo”. Thus it is here identified as such.

Seventh Ray, on the other hand, is sometimes associated with indigo. However, D.K. clearly associates Seventh with violet, as in the following: “The coming in of the violet ray, the seventh or Ceremonial Ray…”[3]

In a work by Lucille Cedercrans, Master R. (who should know) associates Seventh with lavender: “Now visualize the grand triangle itself within a larger sphere, within which are blended the energies of Divine Purpose, Divine Order, and Divine Love. Now visualize just a touch of the atomic red light of the First Ray, just a touch of the blue of the Second and of the lavender of the Seventh, blended perfectly within the larger sphere.”[4]

However, R. is not referring to the sub-rays of the Cosmic Ray, but to sub-rays of the Planetary Ray, or Solar Third (identified above as indigo-green).

D.K. is quite circumspect regarding the color of sixth, as when he declines to list a color for it in the above quote. It is sometimes associated with purple or violet, but I cannot find any instance where D.K. did so. On the contrary, he indicates that “Flowers of violet colour, of lavender and of purple will come into favour”[5] as seventh ray increases and sixth ray declines. This affirms that Seventh Ray (not Sixth) is associated with these colors. With those colors eliminated, we are left with few clues to the hue of Sixth, except for the following: “At this time the sixth ray is passing out and is taking with it all those forms whose keynote is blue.”[6]

Now this, of course, refers to the Planetary Sixth Ray, another sub-ray of Solar Third. However, the above list associates both Solar and Planetary Sixth with blue on this basis, giving us the above list of Solar Ray colors.

The Planetary Rays

Regarding the Planetary Rays, since Earth is a Third Solar Ray planet, all of our planetary rays are derived from or refractions of Solar Indigo-Green, and thus the Seven Planetary Rays may (for the purpose of discussion) be listed as:

I chose “lavender” for the Seventh Planetary Ray because of both the above and another quote from R. Within the Wisdom Group (for which Lucille wrote and to which she projected much of her material) each of the esoteric group centers has its associated Ray and color. For instance, the seventh ray Group Throat Center is associated with lavender, as in the following: “Visualize this motivating impulse moving from the Head Center focus, through the line of light created into the lavender sphere which is the Throat Center…”[7]

The Color of Synthesis

Since the new Synthetic Energy is being brought to Earth by a Cosmic Avatar of Synthesis[8], received by the Planetary Logos-Christ-Buddha triangle, and stepped down to the Triangle of Masters (M., D.K., & R.) at the heart of the Synthetic Ashram, the new synthetic energy is that of Cosmic Synthesis or Indigo.

While this Synthetic Energy and color are sometimes associated with the Seventh Ray, Seventh Ray and all the other Planetary and Solar Rays are actually derivatives of this Cosmic Ray of Love.

Purely as a symbol, we may represent the radiant energy of the Synthetic Ashram as the deep blue of a moonless night sky, or Indigo.

Copyright © 2003 by Glen W. Knape. All rights, including copyrights, reserved.

Further information on Synthesis and the Ashram of Synthesis is included in: The Magic of Consciousness, by Glen Knape

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