A. Study the virtues and vices of each of the seven rays until you have a firm picture of each ray as it expresses itself through these qualities, and, as honestly and objectively as you can be, relate them to yourself - as a soul, and as a personality with three vehicles, mental, emotional and physical. Try to allow your intuition to function and try not to make value judgements about, or show preferences for, particular rays. These prejudices will inhibit the functioning of your intuition.

In my experience, most people want to be powerful, loving and effective, and therefore tend to see themselves as having the 1st, 2nd, and 7th (because it is the incoming ray) rays in their make-up, whether this is so or not. Many people see themselves as having 1st ray power when in reality they are demonstrating 6th ray zeal and fanaticism. The emotional conflicts through which all people go (especially between the first and second initiations, when the effort is being made to control the astral elemental) are not necessarily an indication that the person is on the 4th ray of Harmony through Conflict. Certainly, this ray is never far away from the human evolutionary path, but these conflicts occur on all the rays.

Discrimination, intuition and honesty are therefore prerequisites for finding one’s ray structure, but this is neither so difficult nor so easy as might be thought. It does require work. Certain teachers tell - or even sell - people their ray structures. Quite apart from the fact that there is no guarantee that they know the correct structure (in my experience this is certainly not the case), the real value in knowing one’s rays lies in knowing oneself - which requires effort and objectivity. Simply to be told one’s rays, if correct, denies one this valuable growing experience and, if incorrect, only serves to confuse and delay progress.