Alice Ann Bailey somewhat reluctantly agreed to attempt her own autobiography. What finally decided her to write about her life was a letter from a friend who, she says, felt deeply that "I would really render a service if I could show people how I became what I am from what I was.

Five volumes have been written under the overall title of A Treatise on the Seven Rays, based on the fact, the nature, the quality and the interrelationship of the seven streams of energy pervading our solar system, our planet and all that lives and moves within its orbit.

The main chapter headings to this book provide the sequence in developing study: (1) The Zodiac and the Rays (2) The Nature of Esoteric Astrology (3) The Science of Triangles (4) The Sacred and Non-Sacred Planets (5) Three Major Constellations (6) The Three Crosses (7) The Rays, Constellations and Planets.

The subject of Initiation is one that has a great fascination for thinkers of all schools of thought, and even those who remain sceptical and critical would like to believe that this ultimate attainment is possible. To those who do not believe that such a goal is possible this book is offered for what it may be worth as a formulation of an interesting hypothesis.

"A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" deals with the underlying structure of occult teaching for the present era, with vast cosmic processes reproduced through all areas of life from universe to atom. It is, therefore, no book for the proof-demanding concrete mind, or for those who dabble in the spectacular and the phenomenal.