Greetings from Russell's Remnant:
Russell told our group about the practice of his ashram to let each member study and prepare a paper to be presented to the group. This allowed the group to learn more about different subjects without having to do all the research yourself. Our group tried that for a while. In 1985, the hostess of the TNG prepared a paper on the "Vegetable Kingdom" from the Bailey books. Since we are entering springtime, we have decided to re-print portions of that paper.
The vegetable kingdom is the outstanding contribution of our Earth to the general solar plan. It is the only kingdom in which three rays have finally succeeded in coalescing, infusing and blending the 2nd, 4th, and 6th. This vegetable kingdom is more evolved along its own peculiar lines than any other.
The mystery of the second ray is found to be hidden in the significance of the "perfume" of flowers. Perfume and radium are related - being "emanatory expressions" of ray effects upon differing groupings of material substance.
The vegetable kingdom has the quality of "attractiveness" expressed in color and its highest form of activity is demonstrated by the perfume of its highest forms of life. The perfume is connected with its sex life, which has group purpose and which calls to its aid the initiating wind and the insect world. The very nature of perfume is to affect those agencies which will produce the spreading and the continuity of the life of the vegetable kingdom and the most evolved of its forms have beauty and perfume.
The influence of the 6th Ray of "Devotion" upon this kingdom fixes its eye upon the sun. It is in this kingdom (the 2nd Kingdom of the vegetables) that one first sees clearly the glory which lies ahead of humanity. The secret of the 2nd Kingdom is "transformation" - those hidden alchemical processes which enable the vegetable growths to draw their sustenance from the sun and soil, and to transform it into form and color.
The purpose of this kingdom is "magnetism" which lures to it the higher forms of life, leading the animal forms to consume it for food and the "thinking" entities to draw from it inspiration, comfort, and satisfaction of a mental kind.
Esoterically, the vegetable kingdom is the transmitter and the transformer of the vital pranic fluid to the other forms of life on our planet. That is its unique and divine function. Those who seek to read akashic records or who endeavor to work upon the astral plane with impunity and there to study the reflection of events without exception must be strict vegetarians for ten years. Unless the goal of vegetarianism diet is this field of service, the arguments for its following and for that form of diet are usually futile. In preparation for certain initiations a vegetable diet has in the past been deemed essential. A detailed summary of this strict diet can be read in Rule 6. Many disciples prematurely regard themselves as in preparation for initiation.
In the vegetable kingdom influence of Venus is predominant. In the basic color green we have an indication of the potency of Saturn. Esoterically speaking, the vegetable kingdom is upon the advanced stage of the path of discipleship.
"Disease" has its roots primarily in maladjustment and misdirected force in the vegetable kingdom; this affects the animal and mineral and subsequently the human. It will be in this kingdom in nature that the attention of the investigators must be focused, and the eradication of disease will eventually find its solution.
Remember that we owe a lot to the plant kingdom. Plants provide food and medicine for the higher kingdoms. They provide beauty and perfume. They take our waste material (carbon dioxide) and turn it into life (oxygen). They provide an example for the human kingdom. They meditate - they look toward God (Sun) all day.