Part Five: The Seven Rays
A journey from Thoth’s Seven Lords of Cycles long ago in Atlantis to The Seven Rainbow People of modern times reveals a common thread of “Seven Rays” glowing like an optical fiber through the ages.
Which makes sense, since an actual glimpse of The Seven shows that they do resemble rays of living light that can morph into subtle forms for various missions and purposes.
Nsitden, one of The Seven Rainbow People, shows himself to the INIT group in a subtle human form (foreground) and as a more ethereal being (background). (Transimage received 1997 February 26, by Maggy Fischbach, Station Luxembourg)
So let’s look at some of the many appearances of “Seven Rays” in religious and esoteric culture. (Feel free to click on the links that I’ve embedded in the text, which take you to fascinating historical articles.)
8,000 years ago
Gnosticism (sometimes defined as enlightenment or oneness with God), is said by some classical accounts to have originated in what is now northwestern Iran or Persia around 5500 BCE (probably much earlier)… although modern, scholarly accounts usually trace it back only to, say, 100 BCE. Why so recent? Some believe that the true history of rich spiritual traditions such as Gnosticism was lost during the destruction of ancient texts by Christian Vandals in the Holy Roman Empire after the time of Christ… while others suggest the extent of Christian Vandalism and Arson is exaggerated, for example, in tales of the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. In any case, the result is a big, historical gap of 5,000 years.
Similar historical discrepancies surround Zoroastrianism. Accounts by Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Aristotle and other classical historians claim that the Persian prophet Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, walked the Earth “6,000 years before Plato.” Some modern scholars argue that Zarathustra lived more recently (628-551 BC)… suggesting that the classical scholars accidentally padded their numbers with an extra zero.
I lean more toward the earlier accounts.
Ancient Gnosticism had close ties to the Seven Heavenly Archons, which were associated with the seven heavens as direct emanations from God. The Gnostics regarded them as seven androgynous beings and gave them various names. They’ve been associated with seven gems, seven planets, seven days of the week, and seven rays of light… but I suspect they were actually the same Seven Rainbow People who’ve been following and gently guiding humanity over the eons, and who recently gave humanity world-changing information like the picture above. (Read more here… and here…. )
4,000 years ago
The god Zeus was prominent in religion at least some 4,000 years ago, when the Mycenaean people settled Greece. It was believed that Zeus, to win the favor of Phoenician goddess Europa, took on the form of Taurus the Bull whose face “gleamed with seven rays of fire.”
2,500 years ago
Chaldea was a small Semitic nation that settled in southern Persia some 3,000 years ago, and was later (2,400 years ago) absorbed by the Babylonian empire (which brought the dawn of the Second Epoch). The Chaldeans were “a fiery people” who had a big influence on Babylonian culture. Biblical characters such as Abraham and Moses are said to have been Chaldeans. Chaldean oracles (mediums… prophets…) spoke of seven rays that were purifying agents of the god Helios. The prophet Julian spoke often of “the god of the seven rays.”
2,000 years ago
Despite widespread Christian vandalism and arson of ancient knowledge in the centuries following the birth of Christ, the Seven Rays shone through the destruction and made their mark in Christian art and literature. From Wikipedia…
“In early Christian iconography, the dove of the Holy Ghost is often shown with an emanation of seven rays, as is the image of the Madonna, often in conjunction with a dove or doves. The Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, circa 565 CE, shows the Transfiguration of Christ in the apse mosaic, with “seven rays of light shining from the luminous body of Christ over the apostles Peter, James and John.” In the present day Byzantine-style St. Louis Cathedral in Missouri, the center of the sanctuary has an engraved circle with many symbols of the Holy Trinity. The inscription reads: “Radiating from this symbol are seven rays of light representing the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.
“During the 12th century, Saint Norbert of Xanten, founder of the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, discovered the spot where the relics of Saint Ursula and her companions of Saint Gereon and of other martyrs lay hidden while in a dream. In the dream that led him to this location, he was guided by “the seven rays of light… surrounding the head of the crucified Redeemer.”
The Annunciation, by Jan van Eyck, shows Gabriel with rainbow wings bringing Seven Rays onto Mary, future mother of Jesus
“The Annunciation is an oil painting by Early Dutch master Jan van Eyck, from around 1434-1436. (Click twice on the picture to see the seven rays from above, and other details…) The picture depicts the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she will bear the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38). In a prominent element of the complex iconographic work, the Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit descend to her on seven rays of light from the upper window to the left, with the dove symbolising the Holy Spirit following the same path. The seven rays on which the doves descend are unique elements in the painting in that they are of the heavenly realm rather than the earthly realm, with the difference shown by the artist through the use of gold leaf rather than ordinary oil paint. Only the seven rays are so treated, and while all of the other light sources in the painting cast shadows, the seven rays do not.”
The Seven Rays were also shining in Hindu art and literature in the Far East (again, Wikipedia):
“The Vishnu Purana, a post-vedic scripture, describes how Vishnu “enters into the seven solar rays which dilate into seven suns.” These are the “seven principal solar rays,” the source of heat even to the planet Jupiter, and the “seven suns into which the seven solar rays dilate at the consummation of all things…”
“20th century Hindu scholar, poet and mystic, Sri Aurobindo, described the Vedic seven rays of knowledge, or Agni, as “the seven forms of the Thought-principle” and wrote that “the seven brilliant horses of the sun and their full union constitutes the seven-headed Thought of Ayasya by which the lost sun of Truth is recovered. That thought is again established in the seven rivers, the seven principles of being divine and human, the totality of which founds the perfect spiritual existence.”
Recent Times
A century ago, the Seven Rays flashed brightly in esoteric literature, thanks to Theosophy and its founder, Madame Blavatsky, and they continue shining to this day. (Again, Wikipedia):
“Beginning in the late 19th century, the seven rays appeared in a modified and elaborated form in the teachings of Theosophy, first presented by H. P. Blavatsky The Theosophical concept of the seven rays was further developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the writings of the Theosophists C. W. Leadbeater, and by other authors such as Alice Bailey, Manly P. Hall, and others, including notably the teachings of Benjamin Creme and his group Share International; and in the philosophies of organizations such as Temple of the People, The “I AM” Activity, The Bridge to Freedom, The Summit Lighthouse, The Temple of The Presence (1995) and various other such organizations promulgating what are called the Ascended Master Teachings, a group of religious teachings based on Theosophy.
“As the New Age movement of the mid-to-late 20th century developed, the seven rays concept appeared as an element of metaphysical healing methods such as Reiki and other modalities, and in esoteric astrology.”
The 7s Series:
Macy Afterlife: The Beacon 
Thank you, Mark, for another well-researched, informative and inspiring post. I often contemplate the ancient symbol of the squared triangle: the triangle, according to Ouspensky, representing the noumenal – God, and the square representing the phenomenal or manifest = seven points. At the very centre is the single point representing the individual soul that experiences on its journey the powers of each of these points. It helped me understand our relationship to the divine. One could see the pyramid as a three dimensional representation of this, the square base of four triangle sides within which the King’s chamber represents the seat of the soul, the pituitary gland. I tried to master the Seven Rays (not Bailey’s version but another by someone whose name I have forgotten), but couldn’t. So it is very interesting to read about it in your post. Thanks again.
This is an interesting consideration, Tosca… the seven sides of a square and triangle manifesting 3D as a pyramid……..
Thanks for that food for thought,
Mark