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    "num": 11,
    "slug": "13-explanations-concerning-the-globes-and-the-monads-170",
    "title": "EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING THE GLOBES AND THE MONADS ... 170",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 9177,
    "text": "## EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING THE GLOBES AND THE MONADS ... 170\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 1, sec 6b\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 170 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### ADDITIONAL FACTS AND EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING\nTHE GLOBES AND THE MONADS.\n\nTwo statements made in \"Esoteric Buddhism\" must be noticed\nand the author's opinions quoted. On p. 47 (fifth edition) it\nis said: --\n\n\" . . . the spiritual monads . . . do not fully complete\ntheir mineral existence on Globe A, then complete it on Globe\nB, and so on. They pass several times round the whole circle as\nminerals, and then again several times round as vegetables, and\nseveral times as animals. We purposely refrain for the present\nfrom going into figures,\" etc., etc.\n\nThis was a wise course to adopt in view of the great secrecy maintained\nwith regard to figures and numbers. This reticence is now partially\nrelinquished; but it would perhaps have been better had the real\nnumbers concerning Rounds and evolutional gyrations been either\nentirely divulged at the time, or as entirely withheld. Mr. Sinnett\nunderstood this difficulty well when saying (p. 140) that: \"For\nreasons which are not easy for the outsider to divine, the possessors\nof occult knowledge are especially reluctant to give out facts\nrelating to Cosmogony, though it is hard for the uninitiated to\nunderstand why they should be withheld.\"\n\nThat there were such reasons is evident. Nevertheless, it is to\nthis reticence that most of the confused ideas of some Eastern\nas well as Western pupils are due. The difficulties in the way\nof the acceptance of the two particular tenets under consideration\nseemed great, just because of the absence of any data to go upon.\nBut there it was. For the figures belonging to the Occult calculations\ncannot be given -- as the Masters have many times declared --\noutside the circle of pledged chelas, and not even these can break\nthe rules.\n\nTo make things plainer, without touching upon the mathematical\naspects of the doctrine, the teaching given may be expanded and\nsome obscure\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 171 THE MYSTERY OF THE MOON, UNVEILED.\n\npoints solved. As the evolution of the Globes and that of the\nMonads are so closely interblended, we will make of the two teachings\none. In reference to the Monads, the reader is asked to bear in\nmind that Eastern philosophy rejects the Western theological dogma\nof a newly-created soul for every baby born, as being as unphilosophical\nas it is impossible in the economy of Nature. There must be a\nlimited number of Monads evolving and growing more and more perfect\nthrough their assimilation of many successive personalities, in\nevery new Manvantara. This is absolutely necessary in view of\nthe doctrines of Rebirth, Karma, and the gradual return of the\nhuman Monad to its source -- *absolute *Deity*. *Thus,\nalthough the hosts of more or less progressed Monads are almost\nincalculable, they are still finite, as is everything in this\nUniverse of differentiation and finiteness.\n\nAs shown in the double diagram of the human \"principles\"\nand the ascending Globes of the world-chains, there is an eternal\nconcatenation of causes and effects, and a perfect analogy which\nruns through, and links together, all the lines of evolution.\nOne begets the other -- globes as personalities. But, let us begin\nat the beginning.\n\nThe general outline of the process by which the successive planetary\nchains are formed has just been given. To prevent future misconceptions,\nsome further details may be offered which will also throw light\non the history of humanity on our own chain, the progeny of that\nof the Moon.\n\nIn the diagrams on p. 172, Fig. 1 represents the \"lunar-chain\"\nof seven planets at the outset of its seventh or last Round; while\nFig. 2 represents the \"earth-chain\" which will be, but\nis not yet in existence. The seven Globes of each chain are distinguished\nin their cyclic order by the letters A to G, the Globes of the\nEarth-chain being further marked by a cross -- + -- the symbol\nof the Earth.\n\nNow, it must be remembered that the Monads cycling round any septenary\nchain are divided into seven classes or hierarchies according\nto their respective stages of evolution, consciousness, and merit.\nLet us follow, then, the order of their appearance on planet A,\nin the first Round. The time-spaces between the appearances of\nthese hierarchies on any one Globe are so adjusted that when Class\n7, the last, appears on Globe A, Class 1, the first, has just\npassed on to Globe B, and so on, step by step, all round the chain.\n\nAgain, in the Seventh Round on the Lunar chain, when Class 7,\nthe\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 172 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nlast, quits Globe A, that Globe, instead of falling asleep, as\nit had done in previous Rounds, begins to die (to go into its\nplanetary pralaya);* and in dying it transfers successively, as\njust said, its \"principles,\" or life-elements and energy,\netc., one after the other to a new \"laya-centre,\" which\ncommences the formation of Globe A of the Earth Chain. A similar\nprocess takes place for each of the Globes of the \"lunar\nchain\" one after the other, each forming a fresh Globe of\nthe \"earth-chain.\" Our Moon was the fourth Globe of\nthe series, and was\n\non the same plane of perception as our Earth. But Globe A of the\nlunar chain is not fully \"dead\" till the first Monads\nof the first class have passed from Globe G or Z, the last of\nthe \"lunar chain,\" into the Nirvana\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Occultism divides the periods of Rest (Pralaya) into several\nkinds; there is the *individual* pralaya of each Globe,\nas humanity and life pass on to the next; seven minor Pralayas\nin each Round; the *planetary *Pralaya, when seven *Rounds\n*are completed; the *Solar *Pralaya, when the whole\nsystem is at an end; and finally the Universal Maha -- or Brahma\n-- Pralaya at the close of the \"Age of Brahma.\" These\nare the three chief *pralayas *or \"destruction periods.\"\nThere are many other minor ones, but with these we are not concerned\nat present.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 173 THE EARTH, THE CHILD OF THE MOON.\n\nwhich awaits them between the two chains; and similarly for all\nthe other Globes as stated, each giving birth to the corresponding\nglobe of the \"earth-chain.\"\n\nFurther, when Globe A of the new chain is ready, the first class\nor Hierarchy of Monads from the Lunar chain incarnate upon it\nin the lowest kingdom, and so on successively. The result of this\nis, that it is only the first class of Monads which attains the\nhuman state of development during the first Round, since the second\nclass, on each planet, arriving later, has not time to reach that\nstage. Thus the Monads of Class 2 reach the incipient human stage\nonly in the Second Round, and so on up to the middle of the Fourth\nRound. But at this point -- and on this Fourth Round in which\nthe human stage will be *fully *developed -- the \"Door\"\ninto the human kingdom closes; and henceforward the number of\n\"human\" Monads, *i.e.*, Monads in the human stage\nof development, is complete. For the Monads which had not reached\nthe human stage by this point will, owing to the evolution of\nhumanity itself, find themselves so far behind that they will\nreach the human stage only at the close of the seventh and last\nRound. They will, therefore, not be men on this chain, but will\nform the humanity of a future Manvantara and be rewarded by becoming\n\"Men\" on a higher chain altogether, thus receiving their\nKarmic compensation. To this there is *but one solitary exception*,*\n*for very good reasons, of which we shall speak farther on.\nBut this accounts for the difference in the races.\n\nIt thus becomes apparent how perfect is the analogy between the\nprocesses of Nature in the Kosmos and in the individual man. The\nlatter lives through his life-cycle, and dies. His \"higher\nprinciples,\" corresponding in the development of a planetary\nchain to the cycling Monads, pass into Devachan, which corresponds\nto the \"Nirvana\" and states of rest intervening between\ntwo chains. The Man's lower \"principles\" are disintegrated\nin time and are used by Nature again for the formation of new\nhuman principles, and the same process takes place in the disintegration\nand formation of Worlds. Analogy is thus the surest guide to the\ncomprehension of the Occult teachings.\n\nThis is one of the \"seven mysteries of the Moon,\" and\nit is now revealed. The seven \"mysteries\" are called\nby the Japanese *Yamaboosis*,* *the mystics of the\nLao-Tze sect and the ascetic monks of Kioto, the Dzenodoo -- the\n\"seven jewels.\" Only the Japanese and the Chinese\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 174 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nBuddhist ascetics and Initiates are, if possible, even more reticent\nin giving out their \"Knowledge\" than are the Hindus.\n\nBut the reader must not be allowed to lose sight of the Monads,\nand must be enlightened as to their nature, as far as permitted,\nwithout trespassing upon the highest mysteries, of which the writer\ndoes not in any way pretend to know the last or final word.\n\nThe Monadic Host may be roughly divided into three great classes:\n--\n\n1. The most developed Monads (the Lunar Gods or \"Spirits,\"\ncalled, in India, the Pitris), whose function it is to pass in\nthe first Round through the whole triple cycle of the mineral,\nvegetable, and animal kingdoms in their most ethereal, filmy,\nand rudimentary forms, in order to clothe themselves in, and assimilate,\nthe nature of the newly formed chain. They are those who first\nreach the human form (if there can be any form in the realm of\nthe almost subjective) on Globe A in the first Round. It is they,\ntherefore, who lead and represent the human element during the\nsecond and third Rounds, and finally evolve their shadows at the\nbeginning of the Fourth Round for the second class, or those who\ncome behind them.\n\n2. Those Monads that are the first to reach the human stage during\nthe three and a half Rounds, and to become men.*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* We are forced to use here the misleading word \"Men,\"\nand this is a clear proof of how little any European language\nis adapted to express these subtle distinctions.\n\nIt stands to reason that these \"Men\" did not resemble\nthe men of to-day, either in form or nature. Why then, it may\nbe asked, call them \"Men\" at all? Because there is no\nother term in any Western language which approximately conveys\nthe idea intended. The word \"Men\" at least indicates\nthat these beings were \"MANUS,\" thinking entities, however\nthey differed in form and intellection from ourselves. But in\nreality they were, in respect of spirituality and intellection,\nrather \"gods\" than \"Men.\"\n\nThe same difficulty of language is met with in describing the\n\"stages\" through which the Monad passes. Metaphysically\nspeaking, it is of course an absurdity to talk of the \"development\"\nof a Monad, or to say that *it *becomes \"Man.\"\nBut any attempt to preserve metaphysical accuracy of language\nin the use of such a tongue as the English would necessitate at\nleast three extra volumes of this work, and would entail an amount\nof verbal repetition which would be wearisome in the extreme.\nIt stands to reason that a **MONAD** cannot either\nprogress or develop, or even be affected by the changes of states\nit passes through. *It is not of this world or plane*,*\n*and may be compared only to an indestructible star of divine\nlight and fire, thrown down on to our [[Footnote continued on\nnext page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 175 THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MONADS.\n\n3. The laggards; the Monads which are retarded, and which will\nnot reach, by reason of Karmic impediments, the human stage at\nall during this cycle or Round, save one exception which will\nbe spoken of elsewhere as already promised.\n\nNow the evolution of the *external *form or body round\nthe *astral *is produced by the terrestrial forces, just\nas in the case of the lower kingdoms; but the evolution of the\ninternal or real MAN is purely spiritual. It is now no more a\npassage of the impersonal Monad through many and various forms\nof matter -- endowed at best with instinct and consciousness on\nquite a different plane -- as in the case of external evolution,\nbut a journey of the \"pilgrim-soul\" through various\n*states *of* not only matter *but Self-consciousness\nand self-perception, or of *perception *from apperception.\n(See \"*Gods*,* Monads and Atoms.*\")\n\nThe **M**ONAD emerges from its state of spiritual\nand intellectual unconsciousness; and, skipping the first two\nplanes -- too near the ABSOLUTE to permit of any correlation with\nanything on a lower plane -- it gets direct into the plane of\nMentality. But there is no plane in the whole universe with a\nwider margin, or a wider field of action in its almost endless\ngradations of perceptive and apperceptive qualities, than this\nplane, which has in its turn an appropriate smaller plane for\nevery \"form,\" from the \"mineral\" monad up\nto the time when that monad blossoms forth by evolution into the\nDIVINE MONAD. But all the time it is still one and the same Monad,\ndiffering only in its incarnations, throughout its ever succeeding\ncycles of partial or total obscuration of spirit, or the partial\nor total obscuration of matter -- two polar antitheses -- as it\nascends into the realms of mental spirituality, or descends into\nthe depths of materiality.\n\nTo return to \"Esoteric Buddhism.\" It is there stated\nwith regard to the enormous period intervening between the mineral\nepoch on Globe A, and the man-epoch,* that: \"The full development\nof the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] Earth as a plank of\nsalvation for the personalities in which it indwells. It is for\nthe latter to cling to it; and thus partaking of its divine nature,\nobtain immortality. Left to itself the Monad will cling to no\none; but, like the \"plank,\" be drifted away to another\nincarnation by the unresting current of evolution.\n\n* The term \"Man epoch\" is here used because of the necessity\nof giving a name to that fourth kingdom which follows the animal.\nBut in truth the \"Man\" on Globe A during the First Round\nis no Man, but only his prototype or dimensionless image from\nthe astral regions.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 176 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nmineral epoch on Globe A, prepares the way for the vegetable development,\nand, as soon as this begins, the mineral life-impulse overflows\ninto Globe B. Then, when the vegetable development on Globe A\nis complete and the animal development begins, the vegetable life-impulse\noverflows to Globe B, and the mineral impulse passes on to Globe\nC. Then finally comes the human life-impulse on Globe A.\"\n(Page 49.)\n\nAnd so it goes on for three Rounds, when it slackens, and finally\nstops at the threshold of our Globe, at the Fourth Round; because\nthe human period (of the true physical men to be), the seventh,\nis now reached. This is evident, for as said, \" . . . there\nare processes of evolution which precede the mineral kingdom,\nand thus a wave of evolution, indeed several waves of evolution,\nprecede the mineral wave in its progress round the spheres\"\n(*ibid*)*.*\n\nAnd now we have to quote from another article, \"The Mineral\nMonad\" in \"*Five Years of Theosophy*,\"*\n*p. 273 *et seq.*\n\n\"There are seven kingdoms. The first group comprises three\ndegrees of elementals, or nascent centres of forces -- from the\nfirst stage of differentiation of (from) Mulaprakriti (or rather\nPradhana, primordial homogeneous matter) to its third degree --\n*i.e.*, from full unconsciousness to semi-perception; the\nsecond or higher group embraces the kingdoms from vegetable to\nman; the mineral kingdom thus forming the central or turning point\nin the degrees of the \"Monadic Essence,\" considered\nas an evoluting energy. Three stages (sub-physical) on the elemental\nside; the mineral kingdom; three stages on the objective physical*\nside -- these are the (first or preliminary) seven links of the\nevolutionary chain.\"\n\n\"Preliminary\" because they are preparatory, and though\nbelonging in fact to the natural, they yet would be more correctly\ndescribed as sub-natural evolution. This process makes a halt\nin its stages at the Third, at the threshold of the Fourth stage,\nwhen it becomes, on the plane of the natural evolution, the first\nreally manward stage, thus forming with the three elemental kingdoms,\nthe ten, the Sephirothal number. It is at this point that begins:\n--\n\n\"A descent of spirit into matter equivalent to an ascent\nin physical\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"Physical\" here means differentiated for cosmical\npurposes and work; that \"physical side,\" nevertheless,\nif objective to the apperception of beings from other planes,\nis yet quite subjective to us on our plane.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 177 AS ABOVE, SO BELOW, IS THE LAW.\n\nevolution; a re-ascent from the deepest depths of materiality\n(the mineral) towards its *status quo ante*,* *with\na corresponding dissipation of concrete organism -- up to Nirvana,\nthe vanishing point of differentiated matter.\" (\"*Five\nYears of Theosophy*,\"* *p. 276.)\n\nTherefore it becomes evident why that which is pertinently called\nin *Esoteric Buddhism *\"Wave of Evolution,\" and\nmineral-, vegetable-, animal- and man-\"impulse,\" stops\nat the door of our Globe, at its Fourth cycle or Round. It is\nat this point that the Cosmic Monad (Buddhi) will be wedded to\nand become the vehicle of the Atmic Ray, *i.e.*, it (Buddhi)\nwill awaken to an apperception of it (Atman); and thus enter on\nthe first step of a new septenary ladder of evolution, which will\nlead it eventually to the tenth (counting from the lowest upwards)\nof the Sephirothal tree, the Crown.\n\nEverything in the Universe follows analogy. \"As above, so\nbelow\"; Man is the microcosm of the Universe. That which\ntakes place on the spiritual plane repeats itself on the Cosmic\nplane. Concretion follows the lines of abstraction; corresponding\nto the highest must be the lowest; the material to the spiritual.\nThus, corresponding to the Sephirothal Crown (or upper triad)\nthere are the three elemental Kingdoms, which precede the Mineral\n(see diagram on p. 277 in *Five Years of Theosophy*),*\n*and which, using the language of the Kabalists, answer in\nthe Cosmic differentiation to the worlds of Form and Matter from\nthe Super-Spiritual to the Archetypal.\n\nNow what is a \"Monad?\" And what relation does it bear\nto an Atom? The following reply is based upon the explanations\ngiven in answer to these questions in the above-cited article:\n\"The Mineral Monad,\" written by the author.\n\n\"None whatever,\" is answered to the second question,\n\"to the atom or molecule as existing in the scientific conception\nat present. It can neither be compared with the microscopic organism,\nonce classed among polygastric infusoria, and now regarded as\nvegetable, and classed among Algae; nor is it quite the Monas\nof the Peripatetics. Physically or constitutionally the mineral\nmonad differs, of course, from the human monad, which is neither\nphysical nor can its constitution be rendered by chemical symbols\nand elements.\" In short, as the spiritual Monad is One, Universal,\nBoundless and Impartite, whose rays, nevertheless, form what we,\nin our ignorance, call the \"Individual Monads\" of men,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 178 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nso the Mineral Monad -- being at the opposite point of the circle\n-- is also One -- and from it proceed the countless physical atoms,\nwhich Science is beginning to regard as individualized.\n\nOtherwise how could one account for and explain mathematically\nthe evolutionary and spiral progress of the Four Kingdoms? The\n\"Monad\" is the combination of the last two \"principles\"\nin man, the 6th and the 7th, and, properly speaking, the term\n\"human monad\" applies only to the dual soul (Atma-Buddhi),\nnot to its highest spiritual vivifying Principle, Atma, alone.\nBut since the Spiritual Soul, if divorced from the latter (Atma)\ncould have no existence, no being, it has thus been called . .\n. . Now the Monadic, or rather Cosmic, Essence (if such a term\nbe permitted) in the mineral, vegetable, and animal, though the\nsame throughout the series of cycles from the lowest elemental\nup to the Deva Kingdom, yet differs in the scale of progression.\nIt would be very misleading to imagine a Monad as a separate Entity\ntrailing its slow way in a distinct path through the lower Kingdoms,\nand after an incalculable series of transformations flowering\ninto a human being; in short, that the Monad of a Humboldt dates\nback to the Monad of an atom of horneblende. Instead of saying\na \"Mineral Monad,\" the more correct phraseology in physical\nScience, which differentiates every atom, would of course have\nbeen to call it \"the Monad manifesting in that form of Prakriti\ncalled the Mineral Kingdom.\" The atom, as represented in\nthe ordinary scientific hypothesis, is not a particle of something,\nanimated by a psychic something, destined after aeons to blossom\nas a man. But it is a concrete manifestation of the Universal\nEnergy which itself has not yet become individualized; a sequential\nmanifestation of the one Universal Monas. The ocean (of matter)\ndoes not divide into its potential and constituent drops until\nthe sweep of the life-impulse reaches the evolutionary stage of\nman-birth. The tendency towards segregation into individual Monads\nis gradual, and in the higher animals comes almost to the point.\nThe Peripatetics applied the word Monas to the whole Kosmos, in\nthe pantheistic sense; and the Occultists, while accepting this\nthought for convenience sake, distinguish the progressive stages\nof the evolution of the concrete from the abstract by terms of\nwhich the \"Mineral, Vegetable, Animal, (etc.), Monad\"\nare examples. The term merely means that the tidal wave of spiritual\nevolution is passing through that arc of its circuit. The \"Monadic\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 179 THE LUNAR MONADS.\n\nEssence\" begins to imperceptibly differentiate towards individual\nconsciousness in the Vegetable Kingdom. As the Monads are uncompounded\nthings, as correctly defined by Leibnitz, it is the spiritual\nessence which vivifies them in their degrees of differentiation,\nwhich properly constitutes the Monad -- not the atomic aggregation,\nwhich is only the vehicle and the substance through which thrill\nthe lower and the higher degrees of intelligence.\n\nLeibnitz conceived of the Monads as elementary and indestructible\nunits endowed with the power *of giving and receiving *with\nrespect to other units, and thus of determining all spiritual\nand physical phenomena. It is he who invented the term apperception,\nwhich together with nerve- (not perception, but rather) -- sensation,\nexpresses the state of the Monadic consciousness through all the\nKingdoms up to Man.\n\nThus it may be wrong on strictly metaphysical lines to call Atma-Buddhi\na MONAD, since in the materialistic view it is dual and therefore\ncompound. But as Matter is Spirit, and *vice versa; *and\nsince the Universe and the Deity which informs it are unthinkable\napart from each other; so in the case of Atma-Buddhi. The latter\nbeing the vehicle of the former, Buddhi stands in the same relation\nto Atma, as Adam-Kadmon, the Kabalistic Logos, does to En-Soph,\nor Mulaprakriti to Parabrahm.\n\nA few words more of the Moon.\n\nWhat, it may be asked, are the \"Lunar Monads,\" just\nspoken of? The description of the seven classes of Pitris will\ncome later, but now some general explanations may be given. It\nmust be plain to everyone that they are Monads, who, having ended\ntheir life-cycle on the lunar chain, which is inferior to the\nterrestrial chain, have incarnated on this one. But there are\nsome further details which may be added, though they border too\nclosely on forbidden ground to be treated of fully. The last word\nof the mystery is divulged only to the adepts, but it may be stated\nthat our satellite is only the gross body of its invisible principles.\nSeeing then that there are 7 Earths, so there are 7 Moons, the\nlast one alone being visible; the same for the Sun, whose visible\nbody is called a Maya, a reflection, just as man's body is. \"The\nreal Sun and the real Moon are as invisible as the real man,\"\nsays an occult maxim.\n\nAnd it may be remarked *en passant *that those ancients\nwere not so foolish after all who first started the idea of \"the\nseven moons.\" For though\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 180 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthis conception is now taken solely as an astronomical measure\nof time, in a very materialised form, yet underlying the husk\nthere can still be recognised the traces of a profoundly philosophical\nidea.\n\nIn reality the Moon is only the satellite of the Earth in one\nrespect, viz., that physically the Moon revolves round the Earth.\nBut in every other respect it is the Earth which is the satellite\nof the Moon, and not *vice versa. *Startling as the statement\nmay seem it is not without confirmation from scientific knowledge.\nIt is evidenced by the tides, by the cyclic changes in many forms\nof disease which coincide with the lunar phases; it can be traced\nin the growth of plants, and is very marked in the phenomena of\nhuman gestation and conception. The importance of the Moon and\nits influence on the Earth were recognized in every ancient religion,\nnotably the Jewish, and have been remarked by many observers of\npsychical and physical phenomena. But, so far as Science knows,\nthe Earth's action on the Moon is confined to the physical attraction,\nwhich causes her to circle in her orbit. And should an objector\ninsist that this fact alone is sufficient evidence that the Moon\nis truly the Earth's satellite on other planes of action, one\nmay reply by asking whether a mother, who walks round and round\nher child's cradle keeping watch over the infant, is the subordinate\nof her child or dependent upon it; though in one sense she is\nits satellite, yet she is certainly older and more fully developed\nthan the child she watches.\n\nIt is, then, the Moon that plays the largest and most important\npart, as well in the formation of the Earth itself, as in the\npeopling thereof with human beings. The \"Lunar Monads\"\nor Pitris, the ancestors of man, become in reality man himself.\nThey are the \"Monads\" who enter on the cycle of evolution\non Globe A, and who, passing round the chain of planets, evolve\nthe human form as has just been shown. At the beginning of the\nhuman stage of the Fourth Round on this Globe, they \"ooze\nout\" their astral doubles from the \"ape-like\" forms\nwhich they had evolved in Round III. And it is this subtle, finer\nform, which serves as the model round which Nature builds physical\nman. These \"Monads\" or \"divine sparks\" are\nthus the \"Lunar\" ancestors, the Pitris themselves. For\nthese \"Lunar Spirits\" have to become \"Men\"\nin order that their \"Monads\" may reach a higher plane\nof activity and self-consciousness, *i.e.*, the plane of\nthe Manasa-Putras, those who\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 181 A TRIPLE EVOLUTION IN NATURE.\n\nendow the \"senseless\" shells, created and informed by\nthe Pitris, with \"mind\" in the latter part of the Third\nRoot-Race.\n\nIn the same way the \"Monads\" or Egos of the men of the\nseventh Round of our Earth, after our own Globes A, B, C, D, *et\nseq.*,* *parting with their life-energy, will have\ninformed and thereby called to life other laya-centres destined\nto live and act on a still higher plane of being -- in the same\nway will the Terrene \"Ancestors\" create those who will\nbecome their superiors.\n\nIt now becomes plain that there exists in Nature a triple evolutionary\nscheme, for the formation of the three *periodical Upadhis*;\nor rather three separate schemes of evolution, which in our system\nare inextricably interwoven and interblended at every point. These\nare the Monadic (or spiritual), the intellectual, and the physical\nevolutions. These three are the finite aspects or the reflections\non the field of Cosmic Illusion of ATMA, the seventh, the ONE\nREALITY.\n\n1. The Monadic is, as the name implies, concerned with the growth\nand development into still higher phases of activity of the Monad\nin conjunction with: --\n\n2. The Intellectual, represented by the Manasa-Dhyanis (the Solar\nDevas, or the Agnishwatta Pitris) the \"givers of intelligence\nand consciousness\"* to man and: --\n\n3. The Physical, represented by the Chhayas of the lunar Pitris,\nround which Nature has concreted the present physical body. This\nbody serves as the vehicle for the \"growth\" (to use\na misleading word) and the transformations through Manas and --\nowing to the accumulation of experiences -- of the finite into\nthe INFINITE, of the transient into the Eternal and Absolute.\n\nEach of these three systems has its own laws, and is ruled and\nguided by different sets of the highest Dhyanis or \"Logoi.\"\nEach is represented in the constitution of man, the Microcosm\nof the great Macrocosm; and it is the union of these three streams\nin him which makes him the complex being he now is.\n\n\"Nature,\" the physical evolutionary Power, could never\nevolve intelligence unaided -- she can only create \"senseless\nforms,\" as will be seen in our \"**A**NTHROPOGENESIS.\"\nThe \"Lunar Monads\" cannot progress, for they have not\nyet had sufficient touch with the forms\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** Vide ***C**ONCLUSION in Part II. of this\nBook.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 182 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ncreated by \"Nature\" to allow of their accumulating experiences\nthrough its means. It is the Manasa-Dhyanis who fill up the gap,\nand they represent the evolutionary power of Intelligence and\nMind, the link between \"Spirit\" and \"Matter\"\n-- in this Round.\n\nAlso it must be borne in mind that the Monads which enter upon\nthe evolutionary cycle upon Globe A, in the first Round, are in\nvery different stages of development. Hence the matter becomes\nsomewhat complicated. . . . Let us recapitulate.\n\nThe most developed Monads (the lunar) reach the human germ-stage\nin the first Round; become terrestrial, though very ethereal human\nbeings towards the end of the Third Round, remaining on it (the\nglobe) through the \"obscuration\" period as the seed\nfor future mankind in the Fourth Round, and thus become the pioneers\nof Humanity at the beginning of this, the Fourth Round. Others\nreach the Human stage only during later Rounds, *i.e.*,\nin the second, third, or first half of the Fourth Round. And finally\nthe most retarded of all, *i.e.*, those still occupying\nanimal forms after the middle turning-point of the Fourth Round\n-- will not become men at all during this Manwantara. They will\nreach to the verge of humanity only at the close of the seventh\nRound to be, in their turn, ushered into a new chain after *pralaya\n*-- by older pioneers, the progenitors of humanity, or the\nSeed-Humanity (*Sishta*),* *viz., the men who will\nbe at the head of all at the end of these Rounds.\n\nThe student hardly needs any further explanation on the part played\nby the fourth Globe and the fourth Round in the scheme of evolution.\n\nFrom the preceding diagrams, which are applicable, *mutatis\nmutandis*,* *to Rounds, Globes or Races, it will be\nseen that the fourth member of a series occupies a unique position.\nUnlike the others, the Fourth has no \"sister\" Globe\non the same plane as itself, and it thus forms the fulcrum of\nthe \"balance\" represented by the whole chain. It is\nthe sphere of final evolutionary adjustments, the world of Karmic\nscales, the Hall of Justice, where the balance is struck which\ndetermines the future course of the Monad during the remainder\nof its incarnations in the cycle. And therefore it is, that, after\nthis central turning-point has been passed in the Great Cycle,\n-- *i.e.*, after the middle point of the Fourth Race in\nthe Fourth Round on our Globe -- no more Monads can enter the\nhuman kingdom. The door is closed for this Cycle and the balance\nstruck. For were it otherwise -- had there been a new soul\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 183 MAN, THE OLDEST SON OF THE EARTH.\n\ncreated for each of the countless milliards of human beings that\nhave passed away, and had there been no reincarnation -- it would\nbecome difficult indeed to provide room for the disembodied \"Spirits;\"\nnor could the origin and cause of suffering ever be accounted\nfor. It is the ignorance of the occult tenets and the enforcement\nof false conceptions under the guise of religious education, which\nhave created materialism and atheism as a protest against the\nasserted divine order of things.\n\nThe only exceptions to the rule just stated are the \"dumb\nraces,\" whose Monads are already within the human stage,\nin virtue of the fact that these \"animals\" are later\nthan, and even half descended from man, their last descendants\nbeing the anthropoid and other apes. These \"human presentments\"\nare in truth only the distorted copies of the early humanity.\nBut this will receive full attention in the next Book.\n\nAs the Commentary, broadly rendered, says: --\n\n1*. *\"*Every form on earth*,* and every\nspeck *(*atom*)* in Space strives in its efforts\ntowards self-formation to follow the model placed for it in the\n*' HEAVENLY MAN.' . . *. Its *(*the atom*'*s*)*\ninvolution and evolution*,* its external and internal growth\nand development*,* have all one and the same object*\n--* man; man*,* as the highest physical and ultimate\nform on this earth; the* MONAD, *in its absolute totality\nand awakened condition -- as the culmination of the divine incarnations\non Earth.*\"\n\n2.* *\"*The Dhyanis *(*Pitris*)* are\nthose who have evolved their *BHUTA (*doubles*)*\nfrom themselves*,* which RUPA *(*form*)*\nhas become the vehicle of monads *(*seventh and sixth principles*)*\nthat had completed their cycle of transmigration in the three\npreceding Kalpas *(*Rounds*)*. Then*,* they\n*(*the astral doubles*)* became the men of the first\nHuman Race of the Round. But they were not complete*,*\nand were senseless.*\"\n\nThis will be explained in the Books that follow. Meanwhile man\n-- or rather his Monad -- has existed on the earth from the very\nbeginning of this Round. But, up to our own Fifth Race, the external\nshapes which covered those divine astral doubles changed and consolidated\nwith every sub-race; the form and physical structure of the fauna\nchanging at the same time, as they had to be adapted to the ever-changing\nconditions of life on this globe during the geological periods\nof its formative cycle. And thus shall they go on changing with\nevery\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 184 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nRoot Race and *every chief sub-race *down to the last one\nof the Seventh in this Round.\n\n3.* *\"*The inner*,* now concealed*,*\nman*,* was then *(*in the beginnings*)* the\nexternal man. The progeny of the Dhyanis *(*Pitris*),*\nhe was *'*the son like unto his father.*'* Like\nthe lotus*,* whose external shape assumes gradually the\nform of the model within itself*,* so did the form of man\nin the beginning evolve from within without. After the cycle in\nwhich man began to procreate his species after the fashion of\nthe present animal kingdom*,* it became the reverse. The\nhuman foetus follows now in its transformations all the forms\nthat the physical frame of man had assumed throughout the three\nKalpas *(*Rounds*)* during the tentative efforts\nat Plastic formation around the monad by senseless*,* because\nimperfect*,* matter*,* in her blind wanderings.\nIn the present age*,* the physical embryo is a plant*,*\na reptile*,* an animal*,* before it finally becomes\nman*,* evolving within himself his own ethereal counterpart*,*\nin his turn. In the beginning it was that counterpart *(*astral\nman*)* which*,* being senseless*,* got entangled\nin the meshes of matter.*\"\n\nBut this \"man\" belongs to the fourth Round. As shown,\nthe MONAD had passed through, journeyed and been imprisoned in,\nevery transitional form throughout every kingdom of nature during\nthe three preceding Rounds. But the monad which becomes human\n*is not the Man. *In this Round -- with the exception of\nthe highest mammals after man, the anthropoids destined to die\nout in this our race, when their monads will be liberated and\npass into the astral human forms (or the highest elementals) of\nthe Sixth* and the Seventh Races, and then into lowest human forms\nin the fifth Round -- no units of either of the kingdoms are animated\nany longer by monads destined to become human in their next stage,\nbut only by the lower Elementals of their respective realms.**\n\nThe last human Monad incarnated before the beginning of the 5th\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Nature never repeats herself, therefore the anthropoids of our\nday have not existed at any time since the middle of the Miocene\nperiod; when, like all cross breeds, they began to show a tendency,\nmore and more marked as time went on, to return to the type of\ntheir first parent, the black and yellow gigantic Lemuro-Atlantean.\nTo search for the \"Missing Link\" is useless. To the\nscientists of the closing sixth Root-race, millions and millions\nof years hence, our modern races, or rather their fossils, will\nappear as those of small insignificant apes -- an extinct species\nof the genus homo.\n\n** These \"Elementals\" will become human Monads, in their\nturn, only at the next great planetary Manvantara.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 185 THE MAN, OR THE APE; WHICH THE FIRST?\n\nRoot-Race.* The cycle of *metempsychosis *for the human\nmonad is closed, for we are in the Fourth Round and the Fifth\nRoot-Race. The reader will have to bear in mind -- at any rate\none who has made himself acquainted with \"Esoteric Buddhism\"\n-- that the Stanzas which follow in this Book and Book II speak\nof the evolution in our Fourth Round only. The latter is the cycle\nof the turning-point, after which, matter,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Such anthropoids form an exception because they were not intended\nby Nature, but are the direct product and creation of \"senseless\"\nman. The Hindus give a divine origin to the apes and monkeys because\nthe men of the Third Race were gods from another plane who had\nbecome \"senseless\" mortals. This subject had already\nbeen touched upon in \"Isis Unveiled\" twelve years ago\nas plainly as was then possible. On pp. 278-279, the reader is\nreferred \"to the Brahmins, if he would know the reason of\nthe regard they have for the monkeys. For then he (the reader)\nwould perhaps learn -- were the Brahman to judge him worthy of\nan explanation -- that the Hindu sees in the ape but what Manu\ndesired he should: the transformation of species most directly\nconnected with that of the human family, a bastard branch engrafted\non their own stock before the final perfection of the latter.\nHe might learn, further, that in the eyes of the educated 'heathen'\nthe spiritual or inner man is one thing, and his terrestrial physical\ncasket another. That physical nature, the great combination of\nphysical correlations of forces, ever creeping onward towards\nperfection, has to avail herself of the material at hand; she\nmodels and remodels as she proceeds, and finishing her crowning\nwork in man, presents him alone as a fit tabernacle for the overshadowing\nof the divine Spirit.\"\n\nMoreover, a German scientific work is mentioned in a footnote\non the same page. It says that a Hanoverian scientist had recently\npublished a Book entitled \"Ueber die Auflosung der Arten\ndurch Naturliche Zucht-wahl,\" in which he shows, with great\ningenuity, that Darwin was wholly mistaken in tracing man back\nto the ape. On the contrary, he maintains that it is the ape which\nis evolved from man. He shows that, in the beginning, mankind\nwere morally and physically the types and prototypes of our present\nRace, and of our human dignity, by their beauty of form, regularity\nof feature, cranial development, nobility of sentiments, heroic\nimpulses, and grandeur of ideal conception. This is a purely Brahmanic,\nBuddhistic and Kabalistic philosophy. The Book is copiously illustrated\nwith diagrams, tables, etc. It asserts that the gradual debasement\nand degradation of man, morally and physically, can be readily\ntraced throughout the ethnological transformation down to our\ntime. And, as one portion has already degenerated into apes, so\nthe civilized man of the present day will at last, under the action\nof the inevitable law of necessity, be also succeeded by like\ndescendants. If we may judge of the future by the actual Present,\nit certainly does seem possible that so unspiritual and materialistic\na body should end as Simia rather than as Seraphs. But though\nthe apes descend from man, it is certainly not the fact that the\nhuman Monad, which has once reached the level of humanity, ever\nincarnates again in the form of an animal.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 186 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nhaving reached its lowest depths, begins to strive onward and\nto get spiritualized with every new Race and with every fresh\ncycle. Therefore the student must take care not to see contradiction\nwhere there is none, as in \"Esoteric Buddhism\" Rounds\nare spoken of in general, while here only the Fourth, or our present\nRound, is meant. Then it was the work of formation; now it is\nthat of reformation and evolutionary perfection.\n\nFinally, to close this chapter anent various, but unavoidable\nmisconceptions, we must refer to a statement in \"Esoteric\nBuddhism\" which has produced a very fatal impression upon\nthe minds of many Theosophists. One unfortunate sentence from\nthe work just referred to is constantly brought forward to prove\nthe materialism of the doctrine. On p. 48, 5th Edition, the Author,\nreferring to the progress of organisms on the Globes, says that\n\"the mineral kingdom will no more develop the vegetable .\n. . than the Earth was able to develop man from the ape, till\nit received an impulse.\"\n\nWhether this sentence renders literally the thought of the author,\nor is simply (as we believe it is) a *lapsus calami*,*\n*may remain an open question.\n\nIt is really with surprise that we have ascertained the fact that\n\"Esoteric Buddhism\" was so little understood by some\nTheosophists, as to have led them into the belief that it thoroughly\nsupported Darwinian evolution, and especially the theory of the\ndescent of man from a pithecoid ancestor. As one member writes:\n\"I suppose you realise that three-fourths of Theosophists\nand even outsiders imagine that, as far as the evolution of man\nis concerned, Darwinism and Theosophy kiss one another.\"\nNothing of the kind was ever realised, nor is there any great\nwarrant for it, so far as we know, in \"Esoteric Buddhism.\"\nIt has been repeatedly stated that evolution as taught by Manu\nand Kapila was the groundwork of the modern teachings, but neither\nOccultism nor Theosophy has ever supported the wild theories of\nthe present Darwinists -- least of all the descent of man from\nan ape. Of this, more hereafter. But one has only to turn to p.\n47 of \"Esoteric Buddhism,\" 5th edition, to find there\nthe statement that \"Man belongs to a kingdom distinctly separate\nfrom that of the animals.\" With such a plain and unequivocal\nstatement before him, it is very strange that any careful student\nshould have been so misled unless he is prepared to charge the\nauthor with a gross contradiction.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 187 AN ERRONEOUS OPINION.\n\nEvery Round repeats on a higher scale the evolutionary work of\nthe preceding Round. With the exception of some higher anthropoids,\nas just mentioned, the Monadic inflow, or inner evolution, is\nat an end till the next Manvantara. It can never be too often\nrepeated, that the full-blown human Monads have to be first disposed\nof, before the new crop of candidates appears on this Globe at\nthe beginning of the next cycle. Thus there is a lull; and this\nis why, during the Fourth Round, man appears on Earth earlier\nthan any animal creation, as will be described.\n\nBut it is still urged that the author of \"Esoteric Buddhism\"\nhas \"preached Darwinism\" all along. Certain passages\nwould undoubtedly seem to lend countenance to this inference.\nBesides which the Occultists themselves are ready to concede *partial\n*correctness to the Darwinian hypothesis, in later details,\nbye-laws of Evolution, and after the midway point of the Fourth\nRace. Of that which has taken place, physical science can really\nknow nothing, for such matters lie entirely outside of its sphere\nof investigation. But what the Occultists have never admitted,\nnor will they ever admit, is that man was *an ape in this or\nin any other Round; *or that he ever could be one, however\nmuch he may have been \"ape-like.\" This is vouched for\nby the very authority from whom the author of \"Esoteric Buddhism\"\ngot his information.\n\nThus to those who confront the Occultists with these lines from\nthe above-named volume: \"It is enough to show that we may\nas reasonably -- and that we must, if we would talk about these\nmatters at all -- conceive a life-impulse giving birth to mineral\nform, as of the same sort of impulse concerned to *raise a\nrace of apes into a race of rudimentary men.*\"* *To\nthose who bring this passage forward as showing \"decided\nDarwinism,\" the Occultists answer by pointing to the explanation\nof the Master (Mr. Sinnett's \"teacher\") which would\ncontradict these lines, were they written in the spirit attributed\nto them. A copy of this letter was sent to the writer, together\nwith others, two years ago (1886), with additional marginal remarks,\nto quote from, in the \"*Secret Doctrine.*\"*\n*It begins by considering the difficulty experienced by the\nWestern student, in reconciling some facts, previously given,\nwith the evolution of man from the animal, *i.e.*, from\nthe mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, and advises the student\nto hold to the doctrine of analogy and correspondences. Then it\ntouches upon the mystery of the Devas,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 188 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nand even Gods, having to pass through states which it was agreed\nto refer to as \"Inmetallization, Inherbation, Inzoonization\nand finally Incarnation,\" and explains this by hinting at\nthe necessity of failures even in the ethereal races of Dhyan\nChohans. Concerning this it says:\n\n\"Still, as these 'failures' are too far progressed and spiritualized\nto be thrown back forcibly from Dhyan Chohanship into the vortex\nof a new primordial evolution through the lower kingdoms. . .\n. .\" After which only a hint is given about the mystery contained\nin the allegory of the fallen Asuras, which will be expanded and\nexplained in Book II. When Karma has reached them at the stage\nof human evolution, \"they will have to drink it to the last\ndrop in the bitter cup of retribution. Then they become an active\nforce and commingle with the Elementals, the progressed entities\nof the pure animal kingdom, to develop little by little the full\ntype of humanity.\"\n\nThese Dhyan Chohans, as we see, do not pass through the three\nkingdoms as do the lower Pitris; nor do they incarnate in man\nuntil the Third Root Race. Thus, as the teaching stands:\n\n\"*Man in the First Round and First Race on Globe D*,*\nour Earth*,* was an ethereal being *(*a Lunar Dhyani*,*\nas man*),* non-intelligent but superspiritual; and correspondingly*,*\non the law of analogy*,* in the First Race of the Fourth\nRound. In each of the subsequent races and sub-races *. .\n. *he grows more and more into an encased or incarnate being*,*\nbut still preponderatingly ethereal. . *. *. He is sexless*,*\nand*,* like the animal and vegetable he develops monstrous\nbodies correspondential with his coarser surroundings.*\n\n\"*II. Round. He *(*Man*)* is still gigantic\nand ethereal but growing firmer and more condensed in body*,*\na more physical man. Yet still less intelligent than spiritual\n*(1),* for mind is a slower and more difficult evolution\nthan is the physical frame *. . .\n\n\"*III. Round. He has now a perfectly concrete or compacted\nbody*,* at first the form of a giant-ape*,* and\nnow more intelligent*,* or rather cunning*,* than\nspiritual. For*,* on the downward arc*,* he has\nnow reached a point where his primordial spirituality is eclipsed\nand overshadowed by nascent mentality *(2). *In the last\nhalf of the Third Round his gigantic stature decreases*,*\nand his body improves in texture*,* and he becomes a more\nrational being*,* though still more an ape than a*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 189 A MASTER'S LETTER.\n\n*Deva*. . . . (*All this is almost exactly repeated\nin the third Root-Race of the Fourth Round.*)\n\n\"*IV. Round. Intellect has an enormous development in\nthis Round. The *(*hitherto*)* dumb races acquire\n**our *(*present*)* human speech on this globe*,*\non which*,* from the Fourth Race*,* language is\nperfected and knowledge increases. At this half-way point of the\nFourth Round *(*as of the Fourth Root*,* or Atlantean*,*\nrace*)* humanity passes the axial point of the minor Manvantara\ncycle *. . . . *the world teeming with the results of intellectual\nactivity and spiritual decrease . *. . .\"\n\nThis is from the authentic letter; what follows are the later\nremarks and additional explanations traced by the same hand in\nthe form of footnotes.\n\n(1.) \" . . *. The original letter contained general teaching\n-- a *'*bird*'*s eye view*'* -- and particularized\nnothing*. . . . *To **speak of 'physical man'*\n*while limiting the statement to the early Rounds would be\ndrifting back to the miraculous and instantaneous *'*coats\nof skin.*'* . *. *. The first *'*Nature*,'*\nthe first *'*body*,'* the first *'*mind*'*\non the first plane of perception*,* on the first Globe\nin the **first* *Round*,* is what was meant.\nFor Karma and evolution have *--\n\n' . . . *centred in our make such strange extremes!\n\nFrom different Natures* marvellously mixed* . . .'\n\n(2.)* *\"*Restore: he has now reached the point\n(by analogy*,* and as the* *Third Root Race in the\nFourth Round*)* where his *(\"*the angel*\"*-man*'*s*)*\nprimordial spirituality is eclipsed and overshadowed by nascent\nhuman mentality*,* and you have the true version on your\nthumb-nail*. . . .\"\n\nThese are the words of the Teacher -- text, words and sentences\nin brackets, and explanatory footnotes. It stands to reason that\nthere must be an enormous difference in such terms as \"objectivity\"\nand \"subjectivity,\" \"materiality\" and \"spirituality,\"\nwhen the same terms are applied to different planes of being and\nperception. All this must be taken in its relative sense. And\ntherefore there is little to be wondered at, if, left to his own\nspeculations, an author, however eager to learn, yet quite inexperienced\nin these abstruse teachings, has fallen\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The* Natures *of the seven hierarchies or classes of\nPitris and Dhyan Chohans which compose our nature and Bodies are\nhere meant.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 190 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ninto an error. Neither was the difference between the \"Rounds\"\nand the \"Races\" sufficiently defined in the letters\nreceived, nor was there anything of the kind required before,\nas the ordinary Eastern disciple would have found out the difference\nin a moment. Moreover, to quote from a letter of the Master's\n(188-), \"the teachings were imparted under protest. . . .\nThey were, so to say, smuggled goods . . . and when I remained\nface to face with only one correspondent, the other, Mr. . . .\n., had so far tossed all the cards into confusion, that little\nremained to be said without trespassing upon law.\" Theosophists,\n\"whom it may concern,\" will understand what is meant.\n\nThe outcome of all this is that nothing had ever been said in\nthe \"letters\" to warrant the assurance that the Occult\ndoctrine has ever taught, or any Adept believed in, the preposterous\nmodern theory of the descent of man from a common ancestor with\nthe ape -- an anthropoid of the actual animal kind, unless metaphorically.\nTo this day the world is more full of \"ape-like men\"\nthan the woods are of \"men-like apes.\" The ape is sacred\nin India because its origin is well known to the Initiates, though\nconcealed under a thick veil of allegory. Hanuman is the son of\nPavana (Vayu, \"the god of the wind\") by Anjana, a monster\ncalled Kesari, though his genealogy varies. The reader who bears\nthis in mind will find in Book II.* passim*,* *the\nwhole explanation of this ingenious allegory. The \"Men\"\nof the Third Race (who separated) were \"Gods\" by their\nspirituality and purity, though senseless, and as yet destitute\nof mind, as men.\n\nThese \"Men\" of the Third Race -- the ancestors of the\nAtlanteans -- were just such ape-like, intellectually senseless\ngiants as were those beings, who, during the Third Round, represented\nHumanity. Morally irresponsible, it was these third Race \"men\"\nwho, through promiscuous connection with animal species lower\nthan themselves, created that missing link which became ages later\n(in the tertiary period only) the remote ancestor of the real\nape as we find it now in the pithecoid family.*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* And if this is found clashing with that other statement which\nshows the animal later than man, then the reader is asked to bear\nin mind that the *placental mammal *only is meant. In those\ndays there were animals of which zoology does not even dream in\nour own; *and the modes of reproduction were not identical\n*with the notions which modern physiology has upon the subject.\nIt is not altogether convenient to touch upon such questions in\npublic, but there is *no* contradiction or impossibility\nin this whatever.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 191 THE PRELIMINARY CREATION OF MAN.\n\nThus the earlier teachings, however unsatisfactory, vague and\nfragmentary, did not teach the evolution of \"man\" from\nthe \"ape.\" Nor does the author of \"Esoteric Buddhism\"\nassert it anywhere in his work in so many words; but, owing to\nhis inclination towards modern science, he uses language which\nmight perhaps justify such an inference. The man who preceded\nthe Fourth, the Atlantean race, however much he may have looked\nphysically like a \"gigantic ape\" -- \"the counterfeit\nof man who hath not the life of a man\" -- was still a thinking\nand already a speaking man. The \"Lemuro-Atlantean\" was\na highly civilized race, and if one accepts tradition, which is\nbetter history than the speculative fiction which now passes under\nthat name, he was higher than we are with all our sciences and\nthe degraded civilization of the day: at any rate, the Lemuro-Atlantean\nof the closing Third Race was so.\n\nAnd now we may return to the Stanzas.\n\n-------\n\n[[This page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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