2006-11-29 06:12:00
John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; (Revelation 1:4)
Let us first examine the phrase "seven churches which are in Asia."
Asia in the days of John was not the same Asia of today. Back then it was a Roman province, which included part of Asia Minor bordering the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
The word "church" comes from the Greek EKKLESIA which means "called, or gathered out." The word Asia is thought to come from the Semitic root ASU which is believed to mean "sunrise or light."
We therefore see the subtle meaning hidden in word origins is that John is writing to the groups gathered out from darkness with an eye toward a greater light.
It is interesting that seven is John's favorite number to use in his book as it is repeated 59 times. Quite often in the book the number seven corresponds to the seven chakras or energy centers in the body, but the number in reference to the churches refers to something even more fundamental.
Groups of people do not correspond to the chakras, but more closely gravitate according to certain characteristics and tendencies related to the seven rays.
John talks in this verse about the seven spirits before the throne which represent the seven creative energies or rays that permeate and create all things in our reality. They manifest as the seven colors of the rainbow as well as the seven notes in the musical scale.
There has been much written on the seven rays as they manifest through humanity. Each of them has a different influence on individuals and groups. Each individual has some influence from all the rays, but there will be one in particular that will dominate.
Let is give a brief rundown of them.
First we have the major three rays corresponding to the Holy Trinity.
Ray One:
This is often called the Ray of Power and is associated with God the Father. It is sometimes divided into Will, Power and Purpose.
Those who gravitate to government, leadership and positions of power are often under the influence of this ray.
Ray Two:
This is called the Teaching Ray and represents the Son of the Father. It is also called the ray of Love-Wisdom.
Christ was the perfect manifestation of this ray and demonstrated it through his love, understanding and wisdom.
Ray Three:
This is representative of the third member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. It is usually called the Ray of Active Intelligence and governs the earth itself and brings us into a mysterious relationship with Saturn, which is also governed by this ray.
Many of the intellectuals of the world as well as abstract thinkers, philosophers and mathematicians are influenced by ray three.
Ray Four:
This is called the Ray of Harmony Through Conflict and stimulates creative energies in us.
Ray Five:
This is often called the Ray of Science or Concrete Knowledge. This ray influences people to search for solid provable answers to their questions.
Ray Six:
This is the Ray of Devotion or Idealism and has been the dominate ray among humanity over the past two thousand years which has been ruled by Pisces. This governs our lower emotions and feeling nature. Those strong in ray six will have significant emotional power and often have what we call emotional intelligence. They love to devote themselves to an ideal and are often religious, but not always.
Ray Seven:
This ray governs ceremonial law and order, or organizations. This governs the Age of Aquarius that we are now entering.
The person influenced by this ray will take an interest in ceremony, not only of a religious nature, but in his family and in the various organizations of which he is a member. He will gravitate to groups or form his own and seek to accomplish by making the complex simple through an ordered mind.
The next phrase reads:
"Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come;"
This refers to the One God who is always found within the deepest recesses of our consciousness. God is not only in us now, but he "was" in us in the past, even when we could not perceive him. His presence will be with us in the future. All of us are forever linked to God. We can only attempt to ignore that link, but no matter what we do it was with us in our past, is with us in our present and shall be in our future.
The last phrase of the verse reads: "and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;"
The seven spirits represents seven entities, which represent the seven creative rays.
There are seven great entities who are masters of these rays upon this earth. There are also seven even greater entities who represent the seven rays as manifested through seven sacred planets in our solar system, of which the earth is not one.
Then the are seven greater entities still representing seven solar systems, of which the sun and the planets represent the Ray of Love Wisdom verifying that our God is indeed Love.
The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear favored by the gods.
Maxine Hong Kingston
Copyright © 2006 by J J Dewey, All Rights Reserved