This is the second half of the eleventh
chapter of the book "The
Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians."
Now, leaving behind us the
consideration of the details of the progress of the lower live forms, let us
consider the details of the progress of the human race. It has been seen that
the great wave of human life forms flows around the planetary chain in great
waves — in successive waves of progress. The successive waves are known by
occultists under the name of "rounds."
(This is incorrect since one round is the
entire travel of the planetary chain.)
But, according to the rule "As
in the great so in the small," we find a corresponding series of spirals
in the progress of the human race during each of its several sojourns on the
earth. That is to say, an individual soul arriving on earth in one of the
rounds does not merely live out its life here, and then pass on to the next
planet. On the contrary, it lives a number of lives on this planet, and among
several races. There exists a spiral of races in earth life, through which the
individual soul must live and work its way. The number of these races is of
course seven, for seven is the number manifested in all of the great occult
processes of the Cosmos. There are seven great rounds of human progress around
the chain of worlds, and in each round there are seven races in which the
individual soul must manifest. The present round of the human race is the
fourth.
(It is not only the fourth round of the
human race but also of all beings that live on the planet.)
Each of the seven races of the
present (fourth) round of the race occupies the earth for a great period of
time. The majority of the human race now on earth belong to the fifth race,
though there are some stragglers from the fourth race still dwelling on earth.
(This is false since Master Kuthumi
specified that most of humanity belong still to the fourth race, for example:
Chinese, Tibetans, Mongols, Malays, Javanese, etc.)
Each of these seven great races of
humanity are sub-divided into seven sub-races and each sub-race is divided into
seven branches.
The period during which each great
root race of the human race flourishes on earth is sharply marked off from that
of the one succeeding it by great convulsions of Nature which destroy
practically all traces of the preceding civilization, and which leave but few
survivors thereof. A writer has said of this point of the occult teaching:
« The periods of the great root
races are divided from each other by great convulsions of Nature and by great
geological changes. Europe was not in existence as a continent at the time the
fourth race flourished. The continent on which the fourth race lived was not in
existence at the time the third race flourished, and neither of the continents
which were the great vortices of the civilizations of those two races are in
existence now.
Seven great continental cataclysms
occur during the occupation of the earth by the human life-wave for one round
period. Each race is cut off in this way at its appointed time, some survivors
remaining in parts of the world, not the proper home of their race; but these,
invariably in such cases, exhibiting a tendency to decay, and relapsing into
barbarism with more or less rapidity. »
The first two races
The individuals of the First Race of
the present (fourth) round of the human race on earth ranged from a gross type
scarcely above the brutes up to a very barbarous type.
(This is incorrect since the first race was
ethereal.)
These higher types reincarnated
later as the higher individuals of the Second Race, the lower types of the
First Race constituting the lower subdivisions of the Second Race; the rule
being that the less advanced souls of any race incarnate as the lowest types of
the next and higher race.
The Rosicrucian teachings have but
comparatively little to say concerning the history of the peoples of the First
Race and the Second Race, but from what is taught it may be gathered that these
peoples were of a very low order of humanity — the types which we know as the
Cave Dwellers, the Stone-age people, and the Fire-people, give us the nearest
possible idea of what these First Race and Second Race people must have been
like.
(This is also false since the first two
races were subtle.)
There was apparently little or
nothing of what we call "civilization" among these people, and they
were apparently about on a level with the very lowest types known among mankind
on earth today. The teachings, however, state that there were a few
comparatively highly advanced souls in the latter days of the Second Race, who
acted as the leaven for the great improvement which came with the Third Race.
The era of the Second Race
terminated, as usual, with a cataclysm which destroyed the majority of the
race, and which scattered its survivors among far distant lands.
The third race
Then dawned the period of the Third
Race, the seat of its greatest activity being laid in the continent of Lemuria,
which was situated on that portion of the globe which now lies at the bottom of
the Pacific Ocean, and parts of the Indian Ocean. The continent of Lemuria also
included Australia, Australasia, and other Pacific Islands — these surviving
portions being really the highest points of the continent of Lemuria, the lower
portions of which were sunk beneath the waves ages ago.
A writer says of the character of
the civilization of Lemuria:
« Life in Lemuria is described
as being principally concerned with the physical senses and sensual enjoyment.
(The matter is more complicated because
theosophy explains that the division of the sexes and the activation of the
mind only occurred at the end of the Lemurian race.)
Only a few developed souls having
broken through the fetters of materiality and reached the beginnings of the
mental and spiritual planes of life. Some few indeed made great progress and
were saved from the general wreck in order to become the leaven which would
lighten the mass of mankind during the next great cycle. These developed souls
were the teachers of the new races, and were looked upon by the latter as gods
and supernatural beings, and legends and traditions concerning them are still
existent among the ancient peoples of our present day.
Many of the myths of the ancient
peoples arose in this way. The traditions are that just prior to the great
cataclysm which destroyed the people of the Third Race, there was a body of the
Chosen Ones which migrated from Lemuria to certain islands of the sea which are
now part of the main land of India. These people formed the nucleus of the
Occult Teachers of Lemuria, and they kept alight the Flame of Truth with which
was lighted the torches of the Fourth Race — the Race of the Atlanteans. »
The fourth race
With the passing away of Lemuria —the
home of the Third Race— there arose from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean the
future home of the people of the Fourth Race — the continent of Atlantis.
Atlantis was situated in the space
now occupied by a portion of the Atlantic Ocean, beginning at what is now known
as the Caribbean Sea, and extending over to the region now known as Africa.
What we now know as Cuba and the West Indies were the highest points of the
continent of Atlantis, the lower portions being now buried beneath the waves of
the Atlantic Ocean.
The writer above quoted from, says of
the civilization of Atlantis:
« The civilization of Atlantis
was remarkable, and its people attained heights which seem almost incredible to
even those familiar with the highest achievements of man of our own times. The
Chosen Ones preserved from the cataclysm which destroyed Lemuria, and who lived
to a remarkably old age, had stored up within their minds the wisdom and
learning of the civilization which had been destroyed, and they thus gave the
Atlanteans an enormous advantage at the start. They soon attained great
advancement along all the lines of human endeavor. They perfected mechanical
inventions and appliances, reaching far ahead of even our present attainments.
In the field of electricity especially they reached the stages that our present
race will reach not sooner than two or three hundred years from now.
Along the line of occult attainment
their progress was far beyond the dreams of the average man of our own race,
and in fact from this arose one of the causes of their downfall, for they
prostituted the power to base and selfish uses, and practiced black magic. And
so the decline of Atlantis began. But the end did not come at once, or suddenly
— it was gradual. The continent, and the surrounding islands gradually sunk
beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, the process occupying 10’000 years.
The Greeks and the Romans of our own
cycle had traditions regarding the sinking of the continent, but their
knowledge referred only to the disappearance of the small remainder —certain
islands— the continent itself having disappeared thousands of years before
their time. It is recorded that the Egyptian priests had traditions that the
continent itself had disappeared nine thousand years before their time. »
(This is incorrect, the Greeks had accounts
only about the sinking of the last remaining island of Atlantis: Poseidonis,
and the records of the Egyptian priests indicated that it sank 11'564 years ago
counting from the year 2000.)
As in the case of the Chosen Ones of
Lemuria, so was it with the Elect Ones of Atlantis who were taken away from the
doomed land some time prior to its destruction. These advanced individuals of
the race left their Atlantean homes and "led by the spirit" migrated
to portions of what are now known as South America and Central America, then but
islands of the sea. These people left the traces of their civilization in these
lands, and our scientists discovering these wonders greatly at the evidences of
the high culture shown in them.
(They also migrated to Africa where their
descendants founded the Egyptian civilization.)
When the Fifth Race appeared, these
brave and advanced souls became the teachers of the new race, and were
afterwards remembered as "gods," and the heroes of mythology. The
Fifth Race evolved rapidly, owing to the urge of the souls of the Atlanteans
pressing forward for reembodiment, and human forms were born to supply the
demand, the fertility of the new race being marked.
The writer previously referred to
says of the survival of members of a disappearing race, and their influence on
the life of the new race:
« By means of the cataclysms the
races of each cycle were wiped out when their time came, but the few elect or
chosen ones, that is those who had manifested the right to become
torch-bearers, were carried away to some favorable environment, where they
became as leaven to the mass — as gods'
to the new races that quickly appeared. It must be noted, however, that the
chosen or elect ones were not the only ones saved from the destruction that
overtook the majority of the race in these cataclysms. On the contrary, a few
survivors were preserved, although driven away from their former homes, and
reduced to “first principles of living” in order to become the parents of the
new race.
The new races springing from the
fittest of the survivors quickly formed sub-races, being composed of the better
adapted souls seeking reincarnation, while the less fit sank into barbarism and
showed evidences of decay. A remnant of these degraded human creatures,
however, persist in incarnation for thousands of years, being composed of those
souls not sufficiently advanced to take part in the life of the new races.
These “left overs” are in evidence
in our own times in the cases of the Australian savages, the African Bushmen,
and the Digger Indians, and others of a similar low order of development. In
order to understand the advance of each race it must be remembered that the
more advanced souls, after passing out of the body, have a much longer period
of rest in the higher planes, and consequently do not present themselves for
reincarnation until a period quite late as compared with the hasty
reincarnation of the less advanced souls who are hurried back to rebirth by
reason of the strong earthly attachment and desires. In this way it happens
that the earlier races of each cycle are more primitive folk than those who follow
them as the years roll by.
The soul of an earth-bound person
reincarnates in a few years, and sometimes in a few days, while the soul of an
advanced man may repose and rest on the higher planes for centuries — nay, even
for thousands of years, until the earth has reached a stage in which the
appropriate environment may be afforded it. »
The fifth race
At the beginning of the period of
the Fifth Race (the present race of man) there were born not only the beginning
of the new sub-races which always spring into existence at the beginning of a
new cycle, but there were also born the descendants of the Elect, saved from
the destruction of Atlantis by having been led away from the scene of danger.
The new races were the descendants of the scattered survivors of the Atlantean
peoples — that is, of the common run of those peoples. But the Elect few were
superior individuals of their race, and imparted to their descendants their
knowledge and wisdom.
By an understanding of this
distinction, we are able to comprehend the fact that at the same time there
existed hordes of people of the new races —more or less primitive and ignorant—
and at other places certain advanced peoples like the ancient Egyptians,
Persians, Chaldeans, Hindus, etc. These advanced peoples represented the
advanced souls — the old souls, of the advanced individuals of the Lemurian and
Atlantean civilizations.
The descendants of some of the
higher individuals were afterward known as the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
In due time there appeared the beginnings of the great Roman, Grecian, and
Carthaginian peoples. Then came the fall of the ancient peoples, and the rise of
new subdivisions of the race.
The rise and fall of civilizations
The history of the race shows the
existence and manifestation of the law of the rise and fall of nations.
Regarding this phenomenon, Dr. Draper, in his "History of the Intellectual
Development of Europe" well says:
« We are, as we often say, the
creatures of. circumstances. In that expression there is a higher philosophy
than might at first appear. From this more accurate point of view we should
therefore consider the course of these events, recognizing the principle that
the affairs of men pass forward in a determinate way, expanding and unfolding
themselves. And hence we see that the things of which we have spoken as if they
were matters of choice, were in reality forced upon their apparent authors by
the necessity of the times. But in truth they should be considered as the
presentation of a certain phase of life which nations in their onward course
sooner or later assume.
To the individual, how well we know
that a sober moderation of action, an appropriate gravity of demeanor,
belonging to the mature period of life, change from the wanton willfulness of
youth, which may be ushered in, or its beginnings marked by many accidental
incidents; in one, perhaps, by domestic bereavements, in another by the loss of
fortune, in a third by ill-health. We are correct enough in imputing to such
trials the change of character; but we never deceive ourselves by supposing
that it would have failed to take place had these incidents not occurred.
There runs an irresistible destiny
in the midst of these vicissitudes. There are analogies between the life of a
nation, and that of an individual, who, though lie may be in one respect the
maker of his own fortunes, for happiness or for misery, for good or for evil,
though he remains here or goes there as his inclinations prompt, though he does
this or abstains from that as he chooses, is nevertheless held fast by an
inexorable fate — a fate which brought him into the world involuntarily, so far
as he was concerned, which presses him forward through a definite career, the
stages of which are invariable, —infancy, childhood, youth, maturity, old age,
with all their characteristic actions and passions,— and which removes him from
the scene at the appointed time, in most cases against his will.
So also is it with nations; the
voluntary is only the outward semblance, covering but scarcely hiding the
predetermined. Over the events of life we may have control, but none whatever
over the law of progress. There is a geometry that applies to nations an
equation of their curve of advance. That no mortal man can touch. »
Thus have risen and fallen the great
nations of the past, and thus will rise and fall the great nations of the
future — and the law holds equally true in the case of the great nations of the
present. Even at the time of thin writing great things are under way in the
history of the nations of the present. Cosmic forces are at work under the thin
disguise of the petty plans and ambitions of rulers and statesmen. Looking
backward over any period of past history the careful historian is able to see
clearly the rise and progress of mighty movements which swept along in their
current the affairs of great nations; and the historians of the future will be
able to discern precisely such great movements and forces when they look back
to the history of today, our present time. And in each case it will become
evident that the majority of the peoples involved in the struggles have had no
clear perception of the great forces at work, or of the actual goal to which
the great movements have tended.
Thus have risen and fallen the great
empires of the past, the Egyptian, the Persian, the Chaldean, the Grecian, the
Roman, and the rest, Caesar, Alexander, Charlemagne, Napoleon, and the rest
have been but the puppets of Fate through and by means of which she has worked
out the dictates of Destiny.
(This is not entirely true as leaders also
influence the destiny of the nations they lead.)
Races and peoples now regarded as
but little more than half-civilized will be the successors of the proud nations
of today just as the half-civilized Gauls, Angles, and Germanics succeeded the
proud civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome.
When a nation begins to decline it
is because its more advanced souls have passed on, leaving only the less
progressive souls behind to carry on the work of the sub-race. The advanced
souls pass on to new scenes of activity, and even the backward ones are not
permitted to lag very far behind for the continual change and the creation of
new environments tend to reawaken sleeping energies and to stimulate the
lagging ones to fresh endeavor and activity.
The futures races
The following quotations from a
celebrated occultist may prove of interest to the student in connection with
the particular subjects considered in the present chapter:
« At the halfway point of the
fourth round here the polar point of the whole seven-world period is passed.
From this point outwards the spiritual ego begins its real struggle with body
and mind to manifest its transcendental powers. In the fifth round the struggle
continues, but the transcendental faculties are largely developed, though the
struggle between these on the one hand with physical intellect and propensity
is fiercer than ever, for the intellect of the fifth round as well as its
spirituality is an advance on that of the fourth.
In the sixth round humanity attains
a degree of perfection both of body and soul, of intellect and spirituality,
which ordinary mortals of the present epoch will not readily realize in their
imaginations. The most supreme combinations of wisdom, goodness, and
transcendental enlightenment which the world has ever seen or thought of will
represent the ordinary type of manhood. Those faculties which now, in the rare
efflorescence of a generation, enable some extraordinarily gifted persons to
explore the mysteries of Nature and gather the knowledge of which some crumbs
are now being offered to the ordinary world, will then be the common appanage
of all.
As to what the seventh round will be
like, the most communicative occult teachers are solemnly silent. Mankind in
the seventh round will be something altogether too Godlike for mankind in the
fourth round to forecast its attributes.
. . .
The earth, while at present
inhabited by fourth-round humanity —by the wave of human life on its fourth journey
round the circle of the worlds— nevertheless contains some few persons, few in
relation to the total number, who properly speaking belong to the fifth round.
Now, in the sense of the term at present employed, it must not be supposed that
by any miraculous process any individual unit has actually travelled round the
whole chain of worlds once more often than his compeers. Under the law by which
the tide-wave of humanity progresses, it will be seen that this is impossible.
Humanity has not yet paid its fifth visit even to the planet next in advance of
our own.
But individual monads may outstrip
their companions as regards their individual development, and so become exactly
as mankind generally will be when the fifth round has been fully evolved. A man
born as an ordinary fourth round man may, by processes of occult training,
convert himself into a man having all the attributes of a fifth-round man, and
so become what we may call an artificial fifth rounder. »
OBSERVATIONS
The first and last quotes, William
Atkinson took from Alfred Sinnett book’s "Esoteric Buddhism," while the other quotes he took from his
own book "Gnani Yoga". And
this is not a Rosicrucian teaching, it is a summary of what William Atkinson
read of the Theosophical teaching, although unfortunately he did not understand
it well and that is why he says several wrong things.
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