This is the first half of the eleventh chapter
of the book "The Secret
Doctrine of the Rosicrucians."
THE
SOUL'S PROGRESS
A very important point in the
Rosicrucian teaching is that in which we are informed that the evolution of man
is not confined to this planet, the earth, but rather is extended to a chain of
seven planets.
(This was not taught by the Rosicrucians,
this was a bit revealed in the Kabbalah and later was much more detailed by
Theosophy.)
The Rosicrucians teach that the
evolutionary processes of this planet are linked with and blended into the
evolutionary processes of six other planets; and that life on this planet is
likewise linked with and blended into the life on the six other planets of our
planetary chain.
The Rosicrucians teach that these
seven planets of our planetary chain are closely linked and connected by subtle
etheric forces, and that there is a constant etheric current passing from one
to the others and flowing ever through the entire circuit.
(The word etheric is not correct because
the forces connecting these planets are not etheric but more subtle.)
These connected planets constitute
the chain of worlds which is the series of homes of the individual soul, and
the circuit [round] of which is travelled by all individual souls. Not only
does each individual soul now on earth reincarnate a number of times on this
planet, but in the course of the ages it progresses to the next highest planet,
just as in ages past it has progressed from the next lowest one.
(This is incorrect, since the other planets
that make up the terrestrial chain are subtle and Earth is the
"lowest" planet, although it would be more correct to say the
densest.)
And this round of the chain of
planets has been made several times by the human race in some form of
existence, and will be made again several times.
The planets of this chain of worlds
are not identical in composition and nature with the earth; on the contrary
there is a wide difference between the several planets in this respect. The
earth is not the highest in development in this chain, but on the contrary is
far down on the scale, although there are others still lower. The progress of
the souls around this chain of worlds, however, is not merely like a circle in
which the soul travels from the lowest to the highest, but is rather according to
the plan of the spiral, in which the journey always returns to the starting
point, but on a higher plane of activity.
(This is also incorrect because in the
first three and a half rounds, the process is involutionary; and it is only in
the next three and a half rounds that the process becomes evolutionary.)
This journey of the life forms from
world to world has been in progress since the beginning of the present world
period, and was made by the lower forms of life as they climbed the spiral
stairway of evolution. A writer on the subject has said of this point:
« It is the spiral character of
the progress accomplished by the life impulses that develop the various
kingdoms of Nature which accounts for the gaps now observed in the animated
forms which people the earth. The thread of a screw, which is a uniform
inclined plane in reality, looks like a succession of steps when examined only
along one line parallel to its axis.
The spiritual monads, which are
coming round the system on the animal level, pass on to other worlds when they
have performed their turn of animal incarnation here. By the time they come
again, they are ready for human incarnation, and there is no necessity now for
the upward development of animal forms into human forms — these are already
waiting for their spiritual tenants.
(This is not entirely true as it takes
several rounds before monads that develop in the animal kingdom can move on to
develop in the human kingdom.)
But if we go back far enough, we
come to a period at which there were no human forms ready developed on the
earth. When spiritual monads, travelling on the earliest or lowest human level,
were thus beginning to come round, their onward pressure in a world at that
time containing none but animal forms provoked the improvement of the highest
of these into the required form — the much talked of missing link.
(This is incorrect as William Judge
specified that the missing link developed on the astral plane and not on the
physical plane.)
. . .
The impulse to the new evolution of
higher forms is really given by rushes of spiritual monads coming round the
cycle in a state fit for the inhabitation of new forms. These superior life
impulses burst the chrysalis of the older form on the planet they invade, and
throw off an efflorescence of something higher. The forms which have gone on
merely repeating themselves for millenniums start afresh into growth; with
relative rapidity they rise through the intermediate into the higher forms, and
then, as these in turn are multiplied with the vigor and rapidity of all new
growths, they supply tenements of flesh for the spiritual entities coming round
on that stage or plane of existence, and for the intermediate forms there are
no longer any tenants offering. Inevitably they become extinct. »
The writer above quoted from also
points out a very important point in the progress of the life forms from world
to world, as follows:
« The tide of life —the wave of
existence, the spiritual impulse, call it by what name we please— passes on
from planet to planet by rushes, or gushes, not by an even continuous flow. For
the momentary purpose of illustrating the idea in hand, the process may be
compared to the filling of a series of holes or tubs sunk in the ground, such
as may sometimes be seen at the mouths of feeble springs, and connected with
each other by little surface channels.
The stream from the spring, as it
flows, is gathered up entirely in the beginning by the first hole, or tub A,
and it is only when this is quite full that the continued inpouring of water from
the spring causes that which it already contains to overflow into tub B. This
in turn fills and overflows along the channel which leads to tub C, and so on.
. . .
It is manifest from what we have already said, and in order that the
progress of organisms on globe A shall be accounted for, that the mineral
kingdom will mi more develop the vegetable kingdom on globe A until it receives
an impulse from without, than the earth was able to develop man from the ape
till it received an impulse from without.
(Theosophy explains that the monkey is a
descendant of a creature that appeared in the past as a result of procreation
between humans and animals when this could still be done.)
. . .
The full development of the mineral
epoch on globe A prepares the way for the vegetable development, and as soon as
this begins the mineral life impulse overflows into globe B. Then when the
vegetable development on globe A is complete, and the animal development
begins, the vegetable life impulse overflows to globe B, and the mineral
impulse passes on to globe C. Then finally, comes the human impulse on globe A.
It is necessary at this point to guard against one misconception that might
arise. There is a fact to be stated which has such an influence on the course
of events, that, when it is realized, it will be seen that the life impulse has
passed several times around the whole chain of worlds before the commencement of
the human impulse on globe A.
This fact is as follows: Each
kingdom of evolution, vegetable, animal, and so on, is divided into several
spiral layers. The spiritual monads —the individual atoms of that immense life
impulse of which so much has been said— do not fully complete their mineral
existence on globe A, then complete it on globe B, and so on. They pass several
times round the whole circle as minerals, and then again several times round as
vegetables, and several times as animals. »
OBSERVATIONS
The writer that William Atkinson
mentioned is Alfred Sinnett, who unfortunately did not understand very well the
explanations Master Kuthumi gave him, and the excerpts are from his book "Esoteric Buddhism". So 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 very
well either and that is why he says several things wrong.
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