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Every great religion which arises is under the influence of one or other of the Rays, but it does not necessarily follow that each successive Ray should have a great far-reaching religion as its outcome. We have heard that Brahmanism is the last great religion which arose under first Ray influence; we do not know what may have been the religion which was the outcome of the last second Ray period; but the Chaldean, the Egyptian and the Zoroastrian religions may be taken as representing the third, the fourth, and the fifth Rays respectively. Christianity and probably Buddhism were the result of sixth Ray influence.
THE RAYS AND THE KINGDOMS
It might be of interest to note that all the planets have a close relation to all the kingdoms, but that this relation should not be confounded with the planetary Rays or with the fact that some of the planets are considered as "sacred planets" and some are not. I am here using the words "planetary influence" in the same sense as the astrologer uses them, for he is not dealing, either, with the basic planetary Rays. It might be stated therefore that the planetary relations in this cycle are as follows:
Each of the kingdoms in nature has developed, or is developing, one outstanding quality, with the other divine attributes as subsidiary.
The Mineral Kingdom has the quality of activity primarily emphasized, and its two extremes are the tamasic quality, or the static inert nature of the mineral world, and the quality of radio-activity, of radiation which is its beautiful and divinely perfected expression. The goal for all mineral atomic forms is this radio-active condition, the power to pass through all limiting and environing substances. This is initiation, or the entering into a state of liberation, for all mineral appearances, and the organising of all forms in this kingdom under the influence of the seventh Ray.
The Vegetable Kingdom has the quality of attractiveness, expressed in colour, and its liberation, or its highest form of activity, is demonstrated by the perfume of its highest forms of life. This perfume is connected with its sex life, which has group purpose and which calls to its aid the initiating wind and the insect world. This is not just a pictorial way of portraying truth. The very nature of perfume, its purpose and intent, is to affect those agencies which will produce the spreading and the continuity of the life of the vegetable kingdom. The "aspirants" in the vegetable kingdom, and the most evolved of its forms, have beauty and perfume, and are susceptible to the hidden influences of Those to Whom is confided the initiating of the life-forms and their bringing to a desired perfection.
The Animal Kingdom has the quality of growing instinctual purpose which—in its highest form—works out as the domesticity of the more evolved animals, and their devotion to man. Behind the appearance of the animals is to be found a steady orientation towards understanding, and a consequent gravitation towards the forms of life which evidence that which they desire. Hence the influence of the fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge, which pours through the human family upon the third kingdom in nature.
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