ABSTRACT
The earliest and simplest personality theories are type theories: All people are divided into a few categories based on some classificatory principle, such as physique, body fluids, or behavior. In what is probably the oldest type theory of personality, certain passages in the Hindu scripture Satapatha Brahmana (Müller, 1897) present a typology that is based on the sacred and magical number seven, the seven primeval emanations, and the sevenfold constitution of man. The seven primeval emanations came to figure prominently in the conception of the seven rays of modern theosophy. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society (see Box 1–1) seems to have been the first to use the phrase “the seven rays” (The Secret Doctrine, quoted in Wood, 1952, p. 2). The idea of the seven rays was elaborated considerably by theosophical writers who followed Blavatsky, such as Bailey (1936), Hodson (1956), and Wood (1952). It was also in Theosophy that a number became associated with each ray or governing principle and, hence, with all their “lower” manifestations, including types of people. In this conceptualization, personality turns into a type of mystical numerology of the cosmic determi-nants of human lives. Godhead, the One, becomes the Three (the Trinity), which in turn becomes the Seven: The three higher principles, Atma (1), Buddhi (2), and Manas (3), manifest themselves on the lower levels of existence as the three lower principles, Sattva (5), or natural law, Rajas (6), or natural energy, and Tamas (7), or matter. The two sets of three are united by a seventh, harmonizing principle, represented by Maya, the illusion of outward appearances, to which is assigned the number four. The qualities of the seven rays, according to Theosophy, are as follows. First ray, the ray of will and power; second ray, the ray of love and wisdom; third ray, the ray of higher thought activity; fourth ray, the ray of harmony through conflict; fifth ray, the ray of truth, knowledge, and the lower mind; sixth ray, the ray of devotion; seventh ray, the ray of order, magic, and physical matter.
