(This is the second part of chapter three of William Judge's book "The Ocean of Theosophy," I've added subheadings for easier reading, and my comments are in purple.)
The evolution of beings in the terrestrial chain
The stream or mass of Egos which evolves on the seven globes of our chain is limited in number, yet the actual quantity is enormous. For though the universe is limitless and infinite, yet in any particular portion of Cosmos in which manifestation and evolution have begun there is a limit to the extent of manifestation and to the number of Egos engaged therein.
(I believe that the universe is not infinite because the angel in the book "Talking with Angels" indicated that the universe, although immense is finite and has the shape of a sphere.)
And the whole number of Monads now going through evolution on our Earth Chain came over from the old seven planets or globes which I have described.
Esoteric Buddhism calls this mass of Egos a "life wave," meaning the stream of Monads. It reached this planetary mass, represented to our consciousness by the central point our Earth, and began on Globe A or No. I, coming like an army or river.
The first portion began on Globe A and went through a long evolution there in bodies suited to such a state of matter, and then passed on to B, and so on through the whole seven greater states of consciousness which have been called globes. When the first portion left A others streamed in and pursued the same course, the whole army proceeding with regularity round the septenary route.
This journey went on for four circlings round the whole, and then the whole stream or army of Egos from the old Moon Chain had arrived, and being complete, no more entered after the middle of the Fourth Round.
(As I understood it,
William Judge explained that the monadic host that developed in the
lunar chain did not all enter at the same time into globe A of the
terrestrial chain, but rather a first group entered globe A first and
when it finished its cycle of development in globe A then it went to
globe B; then a second group of divine sparks entered globe A.
And
when the group of divine sparks that was in globe B finished its
development cycle in globe B then it passed to globe C, and the group
that was in globe A passed to globe B; and a third group of divine
sparks entered globe A.
And so on. It's similar to a cascading fountain:
And
so it has continued until the middle of the fourth round, where no more
divine sparks will be introduced into the earthly chain.
The same circling process of these differently arrived classes goes on for seven complete Rounds of the whole seven planetary centers of consciousness, and when the seven are ended as much perfection as is possible in the immense period occupied will have been attained, and then this chain or mass of "globes" will die in its turn to give birth to still another series.
Each one of the globes is used by evolutionary law for the development of seven races, and of senses, faculties and powers appropriate to that state of matter: the experience of the whole seven globes being needed to make a perfect development. Hence we have the Rounds and Races.
(At
the end of the seven rounds, the most advanced divine sparks will have
become divine humans; and the other, less advanced divine sparks will
continue their evolution in the next planetary chain.)
The races
The Round is a circling of the seven centers of planetary consciousness; the Race the racial development on one of those seven. There are seven races for each globe, but the total of forty-nine races only makes up seven great races, the special septennate of races on each globe or planetary center composing in reality one race of seven constituents or special peculiarities of function and power.
And as no complete race could be evolved in a moment on any globe, the slow, orderly processes of nature, which allow no jumps, must proceed by appropriate means. Hence sub-races have to be evolved one after the other before the perfect root race is formed, and then the root race sends off its offshoots while it is declining and preparing for the advent of the next great race.
As illustrating this, it is distinctly taught that on the Americas is to be evolved the new — sixth — race; and here all the races of the earth are now engaged in a great amalgamation from which will result a very highly developed sub-race, after which others will be evolved by similar processes until the new one is completed.
Between the end of any great race and the beginning of another there is a period of rest, so far as the globe is concerned, for then the stream of human Egos leaves it for another one of the chain in order to go on with further evolution of powers and faculties there.
But when the last, the seventh, race has appeared and fully perfected itself, a great dissolution comes on, similar to that which I briefly described as preceding the birth of the earth's chain, and then the world disappears as a tangible thing, and so far as the human ear is concerned there is silence. This, it is said, is the root of the belief so general that the world will come to an end, that there will be a judgment-day, or that there have been universal floods or fires.
The formation of the Earth
Taking up evolution on the Earth, it is stated that the stream of Monads begins first to work up the mass of matter in what are called elemental conditions when all is gaseous or fiery. For the ancient and true theory is that no evolution is possible without the Monad as vivifying agent. In this first stage there is no animal or vegetable.
(The planet was first an astral form and then became a gaseous ball.)
Next comes the mineral when the whole mass hardens, the Monads being all imprisoned within. Then the first Monads emerge into vegetable forms which they construct themselves, and no animals yet appear.
Next the first class of Monads emerges from the vegetable and produces the animal, then the human astral and shadowy model, and we have minerals, vegetables, animals and future men, for the second and later classes are still evolving in the lower kingdoms.
When the middle of the Fourth Round is reached no more Monads emerge into the human stage and will not until a new planetary mass, reincarnated from ours, is made.
(That
is, a new planetary chain will emerge that will be the "reincarnation"
of the terrestrial chain, just as the terrestrial chain is the
"reincarnation" of the lunar chain.)
This is the whole process roughly given, but with many details left out, for in one of the rounds man appears before the animals. But this detail need lead to no confusion.
(The
masters indicated that the human kingdom was the last to appear on
Earth. But William Judge reveals that in one round it was the first to
appear, although that was astrally since physically it only emerged
until the fourth round.
And
further down it seems to indicate that this happened in the second
round. But be aware that the human of the second round bore no
resemblance to the current human and was a crude and gigantic astralthat was barely forming.)
Summary
And to state it in another way. The plan comes first in the universal mind, after which the astral model or basis is made, and when that astral model is completed, the whole process is gone over so as to condense the matter, up to the middle of the Fourth Round.
Subsequent to that, which is our future, the whole mass is spiritualized with full consciousness and the entire body of globes raised up to a higher plane of development.
In the process of condensing above referred to there is an alteration in respect to the time of the appearance of man on the planet. But as to these details the teachers have only said, "that at the Second Round the plan varies, but the variation will not be given to this generation."
Hence it is impossible for me to give it. But there is no vagueness on the point that seven great races have to evolve here on this planet, and that the entire collection of races has to go seven times round the whole series of seven globes.
Reproduction
Human beings did not appear here in two sexes first. The first were of no sex, then they altered into hermaphrodite, and lastly separated into male and female. And this separation into male and female for human beings was over 18'000'000 years ago. For that reason is it said, in these ancient schools, that our humanity is 18'000'000 years old and a little over.
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