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Ra

The Egyptian God of the Sun, son of Nut, the sky, the bearer of the sun disc (Aten). He stands as the Soul or Solar Logos.

Radha

Principal Gopi (shepherdess) and wife of Krishna.

Raga

Lower form of love or desire. Also a Hindu mu­sical score.

Rahu

A demon whose lower parts were like a dragon’s tail. He be­came the constellation of the Dragon (Draco), and is also associ­ated with the waxing and waning Moons, the Moon’s as­cending node.

Raj-Agni

The kingly Fire, the Fire of spiritual enthusi­asm, which purifies all surrounding space; it is the flaming Fire of the Heart offered for the Great Service, and thus sustains the Hierarchy of Light.

Raja

In India, a prince or king.

Raja Lord

This term refers to the great Devic Lords that ensoul each of the seven planes of perception. They rule the substance and lesser lives thereon, and hence are “kingly”. The Raja Lords of the five lower planes are; Kshiti, the dense physi­cal, Varuna, the astral, Agni, the mental, Indra, buddhi, and The Mother of the World, Atma.

Rajas

One of the three gunas, or modifications of existence, the quality of differentiation.or activity. See gunas.

Raja Yoga

The “kingly yoga”, the highest of the yogas (means of union with divinity) for it concerns the control of the substance of the mind, and the wise utilisation of its prop­erties. This method of training was compiled and codified by Patanjali many thousands of years ago and can be found de­scribed in any good book on his yoga su­tras. See The Light of the Soul by A.A. Bailey.

Rakshasas

(From raksas, harm, injuring.) Demons, evil spirits, the denizens of the lower strata of the astral and mental realms.They are feminine in nature, devourers of men, and sometimes said to be protec­toresses. They are often depicted in gigantic form.

Rama

The seventh avatar or incarnation of Vishnu. The Hindu epic, the Ramayana is is based on his life story.

Raphael

(Hebrew for “God has healed”.). A most important Deva Lord (Raja Lord) or Archangel in that he embodies the substance of the men­tal plane, specifically that associated with the King­dom of Souls. He rules in fact, the Devic fusion with that king­dom, thus embodies the karmic threads and substance through which our Souls must evolve. For this reason He is often de­picted as the Angel of Healing in reli­gious works, as in the Apocryphal Book of Tobit where he was sent to remove the white films from the eyes of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil demon.
He embodies the quality of the cosmic Touch of a Logos in that the mental plane is really the Dense physical, cosmically speaking. He thus moulds the physical plane, which is but a re­flection of the men­tal, being entirely conditioned by the sub­stance of the Mind. He is sometimes regarded as a guardian or patron of the arts because of the sense of ordered beauty and rhythm that emanates from the Kingdom of Souls, of that which is the Son of Mind. His Element is Earth, and the colour at­tributed to him is golden. He forms a triplicity with Galadiel and Rivendiel.

Ratnasambhava

A mirror reflects all things equally to all directions in Space. This action is symbolised by Ratnasambhava, the third of the Dhyani Buddhas, representing the “Equalising Wisdom” and the gesture of giving, of giving equally to all concerned. Di­agrammatically, He is represented by the spirallic motion, the force that is manifestation, the eternal cause to the gathering of wisdom. Such Wisdom is inherent in the constitution of Deity and is expressed as illumination, as pure rea­son, onto the plane that represents mind. Ratnasambhava represents the transmuted correspondence to the instinct of self-assertion.

Ravana

The king of all the demons (Rakshasas).

Rays, the seven

These seven Rays of Light derive from one primordial Ray. They are the vehicles for the unfoldment of consciousness throughout our solar sphere. And indeed within the Universe, from where they originate. They are an aspect of the creative Word of a Logos. In our solar system they are subrays of the one fundamental Ray of Love-Wisdom. Each of the planetary Logoi are considered Ray Lords and are thus agents for the distribution of the specific qualities associated with the colourings of any Ray. Light is composed (as all else) of countless little deva lives, who vibrantly “paint” the qualities of the Rays with their substance.
The seven Rays can be viewed thus:
Rays of Aspect.
1. The first Ray of Will or Power.
2. The second Ray of Love-Wisdom.
3. The third Ray of Mathematical Exactitude.

Rays of Attribute.
4. The fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict, of Beauty or Art.
5. The fifth Ray of Concrete Knowledge or Science.
6. The sixth Ray of Devotion or Idealism.
7. The seventh Ray of Ceremonial Aptitude, Magic, or Ritual.

Reincarnation

The doctrine of the rebirth of the consciousness as­pect into a new personality or physical vehicle from one birth to another by means of the action of the Soul, and in accor­dance with working out of the karma of the past actions of the individual. Human beings are not re­born into the vehicles of the animal kingdom. Each life is a progression from the past one and leads the being to eventually become a fully en­lightened be­ing, a Christ, and thence a Logos or aspect thereof. The process that makes us “as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5) by becoming “perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is per­fect” (Matthew 5:48), or to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ” (Eph. 4:13) takes far more than merely one miserable life to accomplish. The Buddhist and Hindu reli­gious doctrines teach only the most exoteric aspects of this doc­trine, and thus are long overdue for re­form.

Rigden-jyepo

The legendary king of Shamballa, according to Ti­betan sources.

Right hand path

The following the way of the White magician, of the un­foldment of the qualities of the right hand or Pingala (Son/conscious­ness) Nadi stream. It is the way of Love, as trod by all members of the Hierarchy of Light. It leads eventually to liberation of the conscious­ness aspect from all attachments to the formed realms, to embrace the vastness of Cosmic Space. It is thus the opposite to the path of evil, materialistic activity, desig­nated the left hand path.

Ring-pass-not

This is the circumference of the sphere of activity within which a Logos limits or delineates His Being during a Mahamanvan­tara. It can be considered as the sphere into which He has Incarnated and outside of which He will not step for the duration of that Life. It is a necessary sphere of self-imposed limitation that ensures that a Logos remains inwardly focussed for the duration of the Compassionate In­volvement with those that constitute His Body of Manifestation.
The term also refers to all magical and meditative endeavours wherein the Meditator/magician builds around himself a ring of protec­tion, within which he concentrates his energies. It is the basis of all mandalic practices.
It can be compared to our outer skin, which limits the ex­pression of our internal organs, and helps protect them, but is by no means im­permeable to impressions and energies, the coming and going of the various elements, the watery and airy secre­tions, which are the corre­spondences to Nirvanees on a Logoic sphere.

Rishis

They are holy sages. In the ancient Hindu philosophy there were seven of these, and they corresponded to the present Chohans of the Rays.

Ritual

Ritual (as applied by the White Brotherhood) is the evocation of subjective forces (the God within) in a rhythmic manner via meditative unfoldment (“moving” meditation) so that the outer person can har­monise his service aptitude in conjunction with the rhythmic flows of energy governing the whole, the field of application. (The service arena that is productive of the common good within the human kingdom.) It is a rhythm that is synony­mous with the mode of activity of the Build­ing and healing Devas. It is a calling forth of the energy of the heart and hands lain forth in the field of service through power of prayer and the silent Sound.
Ritual is necessary because it helps to impose a rhythm of spiritual life on the physical plane. It anchors the “Divine”, the energies from the Soul and higher realms into the subtle sheaths of the person, thus greatly assisting him in all meditative and healing undertakings. Ritual is that which allows “miracles” to be accomplished on the physical plane. Ritual builds the protec­tive aura of the accomplished magician.
Note that the movement of the seasons of zodiacal chang­ings, the lunar and Solar cycles that govern all activity upon our biosphere is but an effect of the ritualistic motions of the greater Logos. Also, blood pours through our veins in ritualistic (cyclic) motion, allowing the thing called “life” to be sustained. Note also the cycles of breath, eat­ing, sleeping, etc., that help produce a healthy body and mind.
The common understanding of ritual concerns the type of costumed affair so prevalent in exoteric religion and the many forms of secret so­cieties and groups (that call themselves “practical magicians”, Kabbal­ists, and the like) that are fo­cussed upon the invoking of the lower psychic powers and Ele­mentals. Ritual, as applied in true white magic, has litle or nothing to do with such pompous grandstanding, for prema­ture awak­ening of psychic powers is totally inimical to spiritual develop­ment, and indeed is most harmful, being but the broad road to all types of obsession, and dark brotherhood activity.

Rivendiel

The Archangel (Raja Lord) that embodies the substance of the four concrete subplanes of the mental, with which human intellects and most of our thought forms are fashioned. He is one with Raphael and Galadiel, who also embody aspects of the mental plane. The colour at­tributed to him is orange.

Root Race

One of the seven major divisions of the human race, seen in terms of the evolution of the human consciousness through time. Each Root Race is a bearer of a different aspect of consciousness, which they were responsible for developing. This then has reflections in the evolu­tion of the types of forms through which these Root Races incarnated. To each Root Race is assigned a specific Continent through which the majority of that race evolved their characteristics. We are presently evolving through the fifth Racial cycle, designated with the term Aryan.
The first two of the seven Root Races are not specifically human, in that they were still developing the form that could be bearer of the mental principle that is the outstanding characteris­tic of humanity, and which distinguishes them from the animal kingdom. Their evolution was involutionary, in that they existed upon incorporeal realms and had still to incarnate into dense physical forms.
The third of The Root Races (the Lemurians) was the first truly human Race, in that they could be bearers of the “spark of mind”, and thus they “Individualised” into human forms. They were the giants of old. The main focus of their evolutions was simply to begin to utilise the physical forms, and etheric sub­structure into which they incarnated. The fourth Root Race (the Atlanteans) developed the emotions, and thus the sum of the conditionings associated with the astral realms, the Heaven and Hell states so familiar to us in theological doctrines.
The fifth and present Root Race (the Aryan) perfected the use of the concrete mind, and the epitome of its civilisation is seen all around us. The final two Root Races (the sixth and the seventh) will develop the Intuition, and then Spiritual Will, which will be the mainstays of those civilisations, as the mind rules ours.

Rounds

In esotericism, the “time” it takes for the consciousness as­pect of any Kingdom of Nature to spiral through seven globes or spheres of evolutionary attainment, and then through seven Chains of such globes, which are the component parts of a Plan­etary Scheme, the Body of manifestation of a Planetary Lo­gos. This then can be placed in the larger viewpoint of the sum of Solar evolution, where these Rounds must then manifest through the seven Planetary Schemes, and finally be abstracted into the three synthesising Planetary Schemes at the end of Solar Evolution. See also Chains, Schemes.

Ruach

The Hebrew term for the breath of life, prana.

Rudra

The embodiment of the destructive, regenerative energy of Shiva.

Rupa

Anything to do with the formed aspect of phe­nomenal life.

Rupa Devas

Devas with form. Those em­bodying the planes of per­ception below the higher mental, or the forces asso­ciated with the regions below the diaphragm es­oterically considered.

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