Gnostic Esoteric Study & Work Aids: Ray of Death Notes

Introduction

This post presents some notes about the ray of death which have been taken from the teachings of Master Samael, my own reflections and observations, and some things others have said.

As far as my own reflections and observations are concerned, please take them as that - observations and reflections of an individual, which may or may not be relevant or coincide with your own observations and understanding.

Notes

From the Cosmic Perspective

The last ray of the seven major rays. With the first ray being life and the last being death. The Moon and Saturn.

The ray of death is ruled by the planet Saturn. Interesting how the moon is small and Saturn is a colossus. There has to be something in that for us to reflect on...

It is because death is an energy that opens up the consciousness to the great vastness of the mystery of the origin of life... Therefore a greater planet is needed to channel that vastly powerful force.

The rays of life and death are opposites. In many ways they perform opposite functions. Yet both serve creation and the Spirit.

The genie of the planet Saturn is Orifiel as Master Samael teaches. There are how many thousands or hundreds of thousands of angels who work under the direction of Orifiel, that bring the function of the ray of Death into the spheres of creation.

The Inner Being of any one of us could be one of these angels of Death that works under God Saturn - Orifiel.

To invoke the God of Saturn - Orifiel always feels like a serious undertaking. Often the answer to the invocation are some difficult circumstances in life that all stop as soon as we become aware of the psychological errors that we need to 'die' in. That is, when certain illusions on our part, have been broken.

The ray of death concerns psychological and physical death as well as death in other spheres, that is not commonly spoken about.

It has been said that we can work with Orifiel - God Saturn, for matters of physical and psychological death as well as all matters related to probate, deceased estates and property.

It would make sense that each solar system has a ray of death, however depending on the planet and the solar system, the ray of death functions differently. Here on the planet Earth amongst a humanity that has a sleeping consciousness with a high rate of death, the angels of death have a lot of work to do...

There are the angels of Death and then there is Death. Death as the Grim Reaper, as the skeletal scythe wielding entity, represents the ray of death moving and working in the Microcosmos level of creation.

The Microcosmos level is amongst human beings, how death appears working amongst the other levels of creation such as the Macrocosmos (galaxies) we are not sure. Maybe the same, but on a greater scale.

The Ray of Death is linked to the Cosmic Mother as Master Samael teaches. He says that no essence can be disincarnated by the ray of Death without the permission of the Cosmic Mother.

This ray keeps a balance in creation, between life descending and life ascending. Specifically it balances any law or principle that descends into creation.

For the natives of this ray, Orifiel - God Saturn is like a father.

In the Esoteric Sense

The ray of death opens to the ultra. The ray of death liberates the essence. It opens the way for the essence to be released from the physical to be able to submerge into the spiritual.

Death is a process of liberating, while life is a process of accumulating.

Everything that has a beginning must have an end. This is how by law of the cosmos, the rays of life and death function.

What the Monad initiates, Life starts, and Death ends.

Death completes the cycle which brings with it the wisdom acquired through the cycle.

Death is associated with wisdom and is transformed into something sublime with wisdom.

Death and maturity go hand in hand. A mature essence is calm and may smile at the presence of death. Yet an essence without wisdom will see death with horror.

At the moment of death we all see the angel of death. Death can be our only esoteric experience in life. Death is certain and is seen by all of us and touches all of us.

Both life and death work with the breath of life. Life begins with an inhalation and death works with our last exhalation. There we can see that Death is about letting go.

The wise know death is the best advisor on the matter of how to live life wisely. Death as silent council.

The direction of the ray of Death as a sum total is upwards. The direction of the ray of Life as a sum total is downwards.

On the initiatic path the rays of Life and Death entwine and work together bringing life to the Spirit. The ray of Life through the Kundalini creates and brings life inwards and through the ray of Death the spirit is freed from its prison of conditioning and given a new life.

It is present in any cycle. It takes things to a new life, that is to a birth. Something must die so that something new can be born. This ray gives new life.

This ray is the new, the mystery. It works with the Law of Interior Spaces and the Law of Absorption.

This ray works with the ray of the Law and the ray of Life. They form a trinity.

As the ray of Life is related to the Great Mother of all of us, the ray of Death is also related to Her. We have our own individual Mother Death, Hecate, Proserpine, Coatlicue etc. just as we have the aspect of our Divine Mother that gives us birth.

That is why Death is often to referred to as She, as a feminine entity.

There is the magic of death, which people in certain cultures more than others work with. As death is a real energy and consciousness in the universe that has its mysteries and its magic. Santa Muerte or Madre Muerte in Mexico is an example. Each mythology has much to say about the mysterious ways of Death.

The Grim Reaper, is the representation of the ray of death sometimes seen by human beings.

The mantra HELIARATOM SANDRON is a mantra to ward off death for a while...

The number of the ray of death is 13 and the number 3 is also important in relation to the matters of death. As three creates, three also dissolves. The power to create is also the same power that dissolves.

The creative power of death is destruction so as to create a new. It is similar to the Holy Denying, which is why the Intimate Christ, which is the Holy Denying, dies to give new life and works incessantly within us to help us to die psychologically.

Death works in three stages as Master Samael explains. We all die naturally in thirds. That is one brain at a time. The hold of Death over us is three fold. She (Death) has an agent in our heart, in our brain and in our sex.

Some cultures relate better to this ray than others. The west does not relate well to it. The Orient certainly does. Some cultures think in alignment with the philosophy of death.

Minimalism, the code of the samurai warrior, an honourable death, kamikaze, hari-kari (Seppuku) are all interesting to reflect upon about how death is woven into the culture and the way of life. Whereas in the west death is banished far away from culture and the way of life.

Death is related to imagination, as it is the dissolution of form, and life is the shaping of form.

The angels of death can help in quietening the feelings of grief of someone's passing, and when a relationship ends, they can help to sever psychological and esoteric links, which once cut will set both parties free.

Some angels of Death are specialists in solving cases of possession (by negative entities). Which makes sense as the function of the angels of death is to end and sever that which should no longer be.

The four genie of Saturn: Aphiel, Cashiel, Sehatiel and Zarahiel are very powerful angels of the ray of Death. Invoke these four together or just singly and they can help in those matters mentioned above.

The angels of death even though they report to a far away planet - Saturn, they are not that far away from us. They are the closest to us.

A role of some angels of death is to awaken people as much before they are going to die.

From the Perspective of the Monad

The Monads always animate and make the rays alive and functional in creation. Hence the angels of Death. I think every mythology and culture knows about the angels of Death.

The functions of the angels of death are to sever the silver chord which connects the essence to the physical body and to help the essences to awaken to their new reality without physical body.

The angels of death look after the essences in the higher dimensions, and for those that have won a holiday in the superior worlds, they guide the essence on that journey.

The angels of death also have special faculties to conjure the different "I's" that interfere with their work. The "I's" of any human being don't want to lose their physical body and fight against the angels of death internally and make the recently deceased essence panic.

For the masters of the initiatic path the angels of death vest themselves in gold while for the common human being they vest themselves in silver, grey and black.

The angels of death have a uniform to perform their function. A scythe, scissors are their instruments. Outside of their function they, as Master Samael says, are splendidly luminous beings who have temples that are full of rich and lush gardens with great libraries holding books in which the dates of disincarnation of human beings are listed.

The ray of death serves our Monads just as the ray of life does.

If a Monad were to travel through the rays - the ray of death is an excellent preparation for the ray of wisdom and the ray of wisdom is an excellent preparation for the ray of the Law.

As with all the rays, the Monads that belong to this ray have special faculties appropriate to this ray. Some are mentioned below.

A special clairvoyance bestowed... So as to know when someone is going to die and in what circumstances. A special vision to see Death and to see the death of certain others.

The scent of approaching death. As death nears the special smell of death increases. Those of this ray have an innate recognition of this smell and know it. They say it smells of flowers...

Innate knowledge in deciphering and reversing the works of ill-intended magic.

Special powers to remove those entities that posses human beings against their will or intention.

Death as a special quality to cut through illusion. Those of the ray of death can be terrible in the way of abruptly dissolving the illusions and dreams of others.

There are great temples of the ray of death in the internal dimension of the Pacific Ocean and in an area close to the North Pole. Just as the palace of the Divine Law is said to be in the internal dimensions of Paris.

Maybe the influence of this temple has made its way to the lands of the Orient and the lands of the North where death is an ever present danger.

It seems some Christian religious orders were touched by the ray of Death such as the Capuchin Order for example, where their monasteries are decorated with the skeletons of their deceased monks..

In the Human Sense

As we get older we come more and more under the influence of the ray of death. We can see how the ray of death works on human beings making them softer, kinder, more giving, more forgiving, more spiritual, more philosophical, more loving, more surrendering, wiser... If only the elderly had dissolved their "I's" they would live fully these qualities.

People of the ray of death are comfortable with closure, endings, definite decisions, catastrophes, the end of illusion and deception, radical detachment and the end of times...

People of the ray of death certainly have strength as the ray of death is not a force to be played around with. It is extraordinarily powerful - more powerful than any human being. Yet its power surrenders to the Monad in the human being who has defeated Her (death).

Of course there is a great amount of love in the ray of death. Often specific Zodiac signs such as Taurus help in bringing this quality of love out, as the sign of Taurus belongs to the house of Venus - Love.

The special scent of death may have been known to people of this ray when they were children and later with the work and path, they recuperate this faculty.

The sign of the Zodiac can also counteract in the person the gloomy influence of the ray of Death.

Sometimes the people of the ray of death are a little bit strange...

To fall under the zodiac sign of Capricorn and belong to the ray of Death is a bit too much. A double Saturnian charge. The tendency to doom and gloom and pessimism is a bit too strong.

Very select in their social circles as the ray of death is select in its visitations.

The scythe, scissors, an old well-used trusty knife, flowers - especially lilies, an owl, jackets with a hood, quiet and lonely places, a monastery, a simple life etc...

The colours black and silver feel comfortable and may even be liked.

Crows, vultures, owls, ibis' and nocturnal animals are often smiled at and understood. There is no doubt that these four birds are very intelligent and can sense death as well as a fellow member of the ray of Death. These birds especially the owl and crow are magical, they know something about magic...

Death is seen as matter-a-fact and not as a tragedy. More as a matter of life and is felt with a certain relief and special inner calm and happiness, which others rarely feel.

A tendency to be aware of the death notice columns in the newspapers and in the news, as it could be one's own Being who was officiating in the passing of someone...

It has two sides in human beings. The positive and the negative side. On the negative side there is a tendency towards ending, cutting and destruction, plus pessimism, dark and gloomy perspectives. On the positive side it is council and advice to bring issues to fruitful completion and to liberate intelligently all that is not needed and no longer useful.

As with all the rays, the ray of death must be sublimated. The sublimation of the ray of death is supreme death within to die more profoundly to be absorbed within our own Internal Real Being. As this progresses, and as the ray of death is very sociable (reaches out to all of us) it will with love help others to do the same.

Hospitals, not necessarily funeral parlours. As it is in hospitals, that the ray of death functions. In funeral parlours the ray of death has already completed its physical work and the ray of death's work continues in the astral far away from the funeral parlour educating and helping the essence recently detached from its physical body.

The mysterious 21 grams... This is the physically measurable taking of death. Death takes the life of a person from the physical into the internal worlds and the ray of life returns this same life to the physical once again.

Death does not touch the soul only the body.

Death as a special quality to cut through illusion. Those of the ray of death can be terrible in the way of abruptly dissolving the illusions and dreams of others.