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A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - Section Two - Division F - The Law of Attraction
If the student bears in mind that the nature of the form is dependent upon the quality of the incarnating Life, he will have also to bear in mind the distinctions between the various groups of Hierarchies, for the Lives in those groups are of a quality diverse to each other and the forms through which they manifest are equally distinct and diverse. Therefore, we must distinguish between:
  1. The involutionary groups.
  2. The evolutionary groups.
  3. The seven groups of lives which we call the lunar Fathers:
    1. Three incorporeal who are the elemental kingdoms.
    2. Four material who are the forms of the four kingdoms on the upward arc.
    3. The seven hierarchies of Lives.
    4. The seven groups of solar Angels.

There must not be confusion as to the distinction between the hierarchies of Beings and the seven Rays, for [1195] though there is close connection, there is no resemblance. The "Rays" are but the primordial forms of certain Lives who "carry in their Hearts" all the Seeds of Form. The Hierarchies are the manifold groups of lives, at all stages of unfoldment and growth who will use the forms. 31 The Rays are vehicles and are, therefore, negative receivers. The Hierarchies are the users of the vehicles, and it is the nature of these lives and the quality of their vibration which under this great Law of Attraction brings to them the needed forms. These are the two primal distinctions, Life and Form, and these two are the "Son of God," the second Person of the Trinity in His form-building aspect. They are the Builders and equally exist in three groups with their lesser differentiations. It is not necessary here to place these groups on certain planes in the solar system.

These hierarchies of Beings Who come in on the Ray of Light from the center are the seeds of all that later is and it is only as they pass out into manifestation and the forms which they are to occupy are gradually evolved, that consideration of the planes becomes necessary. The planes are to certain of these hierarchies what the sheaths of the Monad are to it; they are veils for the Life indwelling; they are media of expression, and exponents of force or energy of a specialized kind. The quality of a [1196] Ray is dependent upon the quality of the hierarchy of Beings who use it as a means of expression. These seven hierarchies are veiled by the Rays, but each is found behind the veil of every ray, for in their totality they are the informing lives of every planetary scheme within the system; they are the life of all interplanetary space, and the existences who are expressing themselves through the planetoids, and all forms of lesser independent life than a planet. Let me briefly give certain hints concerning these hierarchies which may serve to elucidate that contained in the Secret Doctrine concerning them.

What is here imparted is not in itself new, but is the synthesizing of much already known and its gathering together in the form of brief enunciated facts.

Each of these seven hierarchies of Beings Who are the Builders or the Attractive Agents are (in their degree) intermediaries; all embody one of the types of force emanating from the seven constellations. Their intermediary work, therefore, is dual:

  1. They are the mediators between Spirit and matter.
  2. They are the transmitters of force from sources extraneous to the solar system to forms within the solar system.

Each of these groups of beings is likewise septenary in nature, and the forty-nine fires of Brahma are the lowest manifestation of their fiery nature. Each group also may be regarded as "fallen" in the cosmic sense, because involved in the building process, or the occupiers of forms of some degree of density or another.

31 The Twelve Creative Hierarchies. Students are often puzzled in trying to account for the "twelves" in the cosmos. A correspondent sends the following suggestion: In a Study in Consciousness, the three, by an arrangement of internal groupings, show seven groups; these may be represented as ABC, ACB, BCA, BAC, CAB, CBA, and a seventh, a synthesis in which the three are equal. A second six would be represented by (AB) C, C (AB), A (BC), (BC) A, (CA) B, B (AC), the two bracketed being equal and the third stronger or weaker. The two groups of six, and the group in which the three are equal, would make thirteen. "This thirteen may be arranged as a circle of twelve, with one in the center. The central one will be synthetic, and will be that class in which all three are equal. The physical correspondence of this will be the twelve signs of the Zodiac with the Sun at the center, synthesizing all of them. The spiritual correspondence will be the twelve Creative Orders with the Logos at the center, synthesizing all." The arrangement is quite legitimate.
- The Theosophist, Vol. XXIX, p. 100.

Compare also the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac.
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