The Fourth Way says that everything in the creation, in the universe, is alive and exists in a hierarchy that flows downwards from the Absolute or the One, always descending, from finest to densest, called the Ray of Creation. This was expressed in remote times by Hermes Trimegistus in the phrase "As above, so below".

   Human beings exist at a certain level within the creation. We exist upon the planet Earth and we are part of nature, that thin layer of organic life that covers the globe. As we are now, we serve only for nature's purpose. One of the Work's ideas is that organic life acts as a kind of receiver/ transmitter that emanates and receives radiations from and towards this planet. This is, that we transmit and transform certain substances reaching us from other parts of the Solar System and the universe. We call to these substances, food.

   The Earth is a live organism that continuously receives radiations from the Sun, the planets, the galaxies and that emanates radiations, as well. The Work also explains that there are two fundamental laws of creation of the world and its maintenance, one of them is the Law of Seven, also called the Law of Octaves. This law governs the processes of Creation.

   The greater scale is a model of this law. In this scale two halftones are missing between mi- fa and si- do. The vibrations and the processes do not continue uniformly at constant speed. Whenever they reach at these intervals they become slower and they are turned aside in another direction, or they stop totally, unless a "shock" is introduced to fill the interval.

   The human being and organic life serve as a shock in the scale Sun- Moon, making possible the continuation and conclusion of cosmic processes. The purpose of nature only requires mechanical development from the human being. From Pre-history the legends, myths, the teachings and the great religions have indicated that the human being has the potential to develop beyond this mere "serving" the purpose of nature. The human being has the potential for inner growth, for the development of something finer and superior than his sensorial material experience: he has the potential to wake up from his dream.

   Because we exist at a specific level within the creation we are subject to certain laws, but we have possibilities of ascending or of descending within the cosmic scale. This work says that to ascend in this scale we must go in opposed direction of this descendent mechanical flow of creation from the Absolute or One. The necessity of conscious effort is one of the laws that govern us. In order to ascend, the human being must make an effort with conscious work and non-mechanical suffering.

   Among other things, this means to sacrifice our mechanical suffering and negative emotions, such as self-pity, pride, rage, jealousy, vanity, etc., and to be more conscious of our present state and the image we have of ourselves. This means to develop attention and consciousness.

   This consciousness is submerged under personality. As we are waking up we begin to see and to feel the truth about ourselves. We are on the path to know ourselves. Personality is like a shell around the essence. The essence is that which we are born with, the most real in us; personality is all the acquired behaviours and the learned knowledge from our experiences in life since birth. Both are mechanical on their own level and they are not finished in themselves. They serve as a means to an end: to awaken a greater consciousness in us.

   As we are now, our personality is active and our essence is passive. We need to work to turn this polarity, returning the essence active and the personality passive.

   In order to begin the work on ourselves towards waking up, we need to follow certain basic instructions of this work:

   By applying these principles we begin to walk in an opposed direction to the mechanical flow of life, the always descend flow of the Ray of Creation, acquiring emotional energy and producing and storing the necessary for awakening.