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    "slug": "vol-2-anthropogenesis",
    "name": "Volume II — Anthropogenesis"
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      "name": "The Secret Doctrine",
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 9,
    "slug": "59-stanza-vii----from-the-semi-divine-down-to-the-first-human",
    "title": "STANZA VII. -- FROM THE SEMI-DIVINE DOWN TO THE FIRST HUMAN RACES ... 161",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 9084,
    "text": "## STANZA VII. -- FROM THE SEMI-DIVINE DOWN TO THE FIRST HUMAN RACES ... 161\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 2, pt 1, stanza 7\n\n###### fThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 161 A SUGGESTIVE STANZA.\n\n##### STANZA VII.\nFROM THE SEMI-DIVINE DOWN TO THE FIRST\nHUMAN RACES.\n\n-------\n\n§§ (24) The higher creators reject in their pride the\nforms evolved by the \"Sons of Yoga.\" (25) They will\nnot incarnate in the early \"Egg-born.\" . . (26) They\nselect the later androgynes. (27) The first man endowed with mind.\n\n---------------------\n\n24. **T**HE **S**ONS OF **W**ISDOM,\nTHE **S**ONS OF **N**IGHT (*issued\nfrom the body* *of Brahma when it became Night*),*\n*READY FOR RE-BIRTH, CAME DOWN. **T**HEY SAW\nTHE (*intellectually*)* *VILE FORMS OF THE FIRST\nTHIRD (*still senseless Race*) (*a*)*. *\"**W**E\nCAN CHOOSE,\" SAID THE **L**ORDS, \"WE HAVE\nWISDOM.\" **S**OME ENTERED THE **C**HHAYAS.\n**S**OME PROJECTED A SPARK. **S**OME\nDEFERRED TILL THE **F**OURTH (*Race*).*\n***F**ROM THEIR OWN ESSENCE THEY FILLED (*intensified*)*\n*THE **K**AMA (*the vehicle of desire*)*.\n***T**HOSE WHO RECEIVED BUT A SPARK REMAINED\nDESTITUTE OF (*higher*)* *KNOWLEDGE. **T**HE\nSPARK BURNT LOW (*b*). **T**HE **T**HIRD\nREMAINED MIND-LESS. **T**HEIR **J**IVAS\n(*Monads*)* *WERE NOT READY. **T**HESE\nWERE SET APART AMONG THE **S**EVEN (*primitive\nhuman species*).** T**HEY (*became* *the*)\nNARROW-HEADED. **T**HE THIRD WERE READY. **I**N\nTHESE SHALL WE DWELL, SAID THE **L**ORDS OF THE **F**LAME\nAND OF THE **D**ARK **W**ISDOM (*c*).\n\nThis Stanza contains, in itself, the whole key to the mysteries\nof evil, the so-called Fall of the angels, and the many problems\nthat have puzzled the brains of the philosophers from the time\nthat the memory of man began. It solves the secret of the subsequent\ninequalities of intellectual capacity, of birth or social position,\nand gives a logical explanation to the incomprehensible Karmic\ncourse throughout the aeons which followed. The best explanation\nwhich can be given, in view of the difficulties of the subject,\nshall now be attempted.\n\n(*a*)* *Up to the Fourth Round, and even to the\nlater part of the Third Race in this Round, *Man -- *if\nthe ever-changing forms that clothed the Monads during the first\nthree Rounds and the first two and a half races of the present\none can be given that misleading name -- is, so far, only an animal\nintellectually. It is only in the actual *midway *Round\nthat he develops in himself entirely the fourth principle as a\nfit vehicle for the\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 162 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nfifth. But Manas will be relatively *fully* developed only\nin the following Round, when it will have an opportunity of becoming\nentirely divine until the end of the Rounds. As Christian Schoettgen\nsays in *Horae Hebraic, *etc., the first terrestrial Adam\n\"had only the breath of life,\" *Nephesh, but not\nthe living Soul.*\n\n(*b*) Here the *inferior *Races, of which there\nare still some analogues left -- as the Australians (now fast\ndying out) and some African and Oceanic tribes -- are meant. \"*They\nwere not ready*\" signifies that the *Karmic *development\nof these Monads had not yet fitted them to occupy the forms of\nmen destined for incarnation in higher intellectual Races. But\nthis is explained later on.\n\n(*c*) *The Zohar *speaks of \"Black Fire,\"\nwhich is *Absolute *Light-Wisdom. To those who, prompted\nby old theological prejudice, may say: \"But the *Asuras\n*are the rebel Devas, the *opponents of the Gods -- *hence\ndevils, and the spirits of Evil,\" it is answered: Esoteric\nphilosophy admits neither good nor evil *per se, *as existing\nindependently in nature. The cause for both is found, as regards\nthe Kosmos, in the necessity of contraries or contrasts, and with\nrespect to man, in his human nature, his ignorance and passions.\nThere is no *devil *or the utterly depraved, as there are\nno Angels absolutely perfect, though there may be spirits of Light\nand of Darkness; thus **L**UCIFER -- the spirit of\nIntellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought -- is metaphorically\nthe guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the\nrocks and sandbanks of Life, for Lucifer is the **L**OGOS\nin his highest, and the \"Adversary\" in his lowest aspect\n-- both of which are reflected in our *Ego. *Lactantius,\nspeaking of the Nature of Christ, makes the **L**OGOS,\nthe *Word, the first-born brother of Satan, *the \"*first\nof all creatures.*\"* *(*Inst. div*. Book\nII., c. viii., \"Qabbalah,\" 116.)\n\nThe* Vishnu Purana *describes these primeval creatures\n(the *Arvaksrota*) with* crooked *digestive canals:\nThey were \"endowed with inward manifestations, but mutually\nin ignorance about *their kind and nature.*\" The twenty-eight\nkinds of *Badha, *or imperfections, do not apply, as Wilson\nthought, to the animals now known and specified by him,* for these\ndid not exist in those geological periods. This is quite plain\nin the said work, in which the first created (on this globe) are\nthe \"five-fold immovable creation,\" minerals and vegetables;\nthen come those fabulous animals, *Tiryaksrota, *(the monsters\nof the abyss slain by the \"Lords,\" see Stanzas **II.\n**and **III**.); then the *Urdhwasrotas, *the happy\ncelestial beings, which feed on ambrosia; then lastly, the *Arvaksrotas,\n*human beings -- Brahma's\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See Book I., chap. v., p. 71.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 163 CREATORS AND SUB-CREATORS.\n\nseventh creation so-called. But these \"creations,\" including\nthe latter, did not occur on this globe, wherever else they may\nhave taken place. It is not Brahma who creates things and men\non this Earth, but the chief and Lord of the Prajapati, the Lords\nof Being and terrestrial Creation.* Obeying the command of Brahma,\nDaksha (the synthesis, or the aggregate, of the terrestrial creators\nand progenitors, Pitris included) made superior and inferior (*vara\n*and* avara*)* *things \"referring to *putra*\"\nprogeny, and \"*bipeds *and* quadrupeds, *and\nsubsequently by his will (the Sons of Will and Yoga) made females,\"\n*i.e*., separated the androgynes. Here again, we have \"bipeds\"\nor men, created before the \"quadrupeds\" as in the esoteric\nteachings. (*Vide supra and Stanza XII as explained.*)\n\nSince, in the exoteric accounts, the *Asuras *are the first\nbeings created from the \"body of night,\" while the *Pitris\n*issue from that of *Twilight*;* *the \"gods\"\nbeing placed by Parasara* *(*Vishnu Purana*)*\n*between the two, and shown to evolve from the \"body\nof the day,\" it is easy to discover a determined purpose\nto veil the order of creation. Man is the *Arvaksrota *coming\nfrom the \"Body of the Dawn\"; and elsewhere, man is again\nreferred to, when the creator of the world, Brahma, is shown \"creating\nfierce beings, denominated Bhutas and eaters of flesh,\" or\nas the text has it, \"fiends frightful from being monkey-coloured\nand carnivorous.\"** Whereas the Rakshasas are generally translated\nby \"Evil Spirits\" and \"the enemies of the gods,\"\nwhich identifies them with the *Asuras. *In the Ramayana,\nwhen Hanuman is reconnoitering the enemy in Lanka, he finds there\nRakshasas, some hideous, \"while some were beautiful to look\nupon,\" and, in *Vishnu Purana, *there is a direct\nreference to their becoming the Saviours of \"Humanity,\"\nor of Brahma.\n\nThe allegory is very ingenious. Great intellect and too much knowledge\nare a two-edged weapon in life, and instruments for evil as well\nas for good. When combined with Selfishness, they will make of\nthe whole of Humanity a footstool for the elevation of him who\npossesses them, and a means for the attainment of his objects;\nwhile, applied to altruistic humanitarian purposes, they may become\nthe means of the salvation of many. At all events, the absence\nof self-consciousness and intellect will make of man an idiot,\na brute in human form. Brahma is *Mahat -- *the universal\nMind -- hence the too-selfish among the Rakshasas showing the\ndesire to become possessed of it all -- to \"devour\"\nMahat. The allegory is transparent.\n\nAt any rate, esoteric philosophy identifies the pre-Brahmanical\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** *\"*Vishnu Purana,*\" Book I., chap.\nxv. of vol. 2.\n\n*** Ibid., *Book I., chap. v.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 164 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nAsuras, Rudras,* Rakshasas and all the \"Adversaries\"\nof the Gods in the allegories, with the Egos, which, by incarnating\nin the still witless man of the Third Race, made him *consciously\n*immortal. They are, then, during the cycle of Incarnations,\nthe true *dual Logos -- *the conflicting and two-faced\ndivine Principle in Man. The Commentary that follows, and the\nnext Stanzas may, no doubt, throw more light on this very difficult\ntenet, but the writer does not feel competent to give it out fully.\nOf the succession of Races, however, they say: --\n\n\"*First come the SELF-EXISTENT on this Earth. They are\nthe *'*Spiritual Lives*'* projected by the absolute\nWILL and* *LAW, at the dawn of every rebirth of the worlds.\nThese LIVES are the divine *'*Sishta,*'* *(the\nseed-Manus, or the Prajapati and the Pitris).\"\n\nFrom these proceed --\n\n1.* The First Race, the *\"*Self-born,*\"*\nwhich are the *(astral)* shadows of their Progenitors.****\nThe body was devoid of all understanding *(mind, intelligence,\nand will). *The inner being *(the higher self or Monad),\n*though within the earthly frame, was unconnected with it.\nThe link, the Manas, was not there as yet.*\n\n2.* From the First *(race)* emanated the second, called\nthe *\"*Sweat-born*\"**** and*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Whom Manu calls \"our paternal grandfathers\" (**III.**,\n284). The Rudras are the seven manifestations of Rudra-Siva, \"the\ndestroying god,\" and *also *the grand Yogi and ascetic.\n\n** See § II, §§ 1, Commentary.\n\n*** To speak of *life *as having arisen, and of the human\nrace as having originated, in this *absurdly unscientific *way,\nin the face of the modern Pedigrees of Man, is to court instantaneous\nannihilation. The esoteric doctrine risks the danger, nevertheless,\nand even goes so far as to ask the impartial reader to compare\nthe above hypothesis (if it is one) with Haeckel's theory -- now\nfast becoming an axiom with science -- which is quoted verbatim:\n--\n\n\". . . How did life, the living world of organisms, arise?\nAnd, secondly, the special question: How did the human race originate?\nThe first of these two inquiries, that as to the first appearance\nof living beings, can only be decided empirically (! !) by proof\nof the so-called Archebiosis, or equivocal generation, or the\nspontaneous production of organisms of the simplest conceivable\nkind. Such are the Monera (Protogenes, Protamoeba, etc), exceedingly\nsimple microscopic masses of protoplasm without structure or organisation,\nwhich take in nutriment and *reproduce themselves by division.\n*Such a Moneron as that primordial organism *discovered\n*by the renowned English zoologist Huxley, and named Bathybius\nHaeckelii, appears as a continuous thick protoplasmic covering\nat the greatest depths of the ocean, between 3,000 and 30,000\nfeet. *It is true that the first appearance of such Monera\nhas not up to the present moment been actually observed*;*\n*but there is nothing intrinsically improbable in such an\nevolution.\" (*The *\"*Pedigree of Man,*\"*\nAveling*'*s translation, p *33.)\n\nThe Bathybius protoplasm having recently turned out to be no organic\nsubstance at all, there remains little to be said. Nor, after\nreading this, does one need to consume further time in refuting\nthe further assertion that . . . . \"in that case man also\n[[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 165 TO THE MONERON THE CREATOR.\n\n*the *\"*Boneless.*\"* This is the Second\nRoot-Race, endowed by the preservers *(Rakshasas)* *and\nthe incarnating gods *(Asuras and the Kumaras) *with the\nfirst primitive and weak spark *(the germ of intelligence)\n. . *And from these in turn proceeds: -*-\n\n3. *The Third Root-Race, the *\"*Two-fold*\"*\n*(Androgynes). *The first Races hereof are shells, till\nthe last is *\"*inhabited*\"* *(i.e.,\ninformed) *by the Dhyanis.*\n\nThe Second Race, as stated above, being also sexless, evolved\nout of itself, at its beginning, the Third Androgyne Race by an\nanalogous, but already more complicated process. As described\nin the *Commentary,* the very earliest of that race were:\n--\n\n\"*The *'*Sons of Passive Yoga.* They issued from\nthe second Manushyas*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] has *beyond a doubt\n*(to the minds of Haeckel and his like) arisen from the lower\nmammalia, apes and the earlier simian creatures, the still earlier\nMarsupialia, Amphibia, Pisces, by progressive transformations,\"\nall produced by \"a series of *natural forces working blindly*.\n. . . . . . . . *aim, without design*\" (*p. *36).\n\nThe above-quoted passage bears its criticism on its own face.\nScience is made to teach that which, up to the present time, \"*has\nnever been actually observed.*\"* *She is made\nto deny the phenomenon of an *intelligent* nature and a\nvital force independent of form and matter, and to find it more\nscientific to teach the miraculous performance of \"natural\nforces *working blindly without aim or design.*\"*\n*If so, then we are led to think that the *physico-mechanical\n*forces of the brains of certain eminent Scientists are leading\nthem on as blindly to sacrifice logic and common sense on the\naltar of mutual admiration. Why should the protoplasmic *Moneron*\nproducing the first living creature through *self-division\n*be held as a very scientific hypothesis, and an ethereal\n*pre-human *race generating the primeval men in the same\nfashion be tabooed as *unscientific *superstition? Or has\nmaterialism obtained a sole monopoly in Science?\n\n* The* Rakshasas, *regarded in Indian popular theology\nas demons, are called the \"Preservers\" beyond the Himalayas.\nThis double and contradictory meaning has its origin in a philosophical\nallegory, which is variously rendered in the Puranas. It is stated\nthat when Brahma created the demons, Yakshas (from *Yaksh,\n*to eat) and the Rakshasas, both of which kinds of demons,\nas soon as born, wished to devour their creator, those among them\nthat called out \"Not so! oh, let him be saved (preserved)\"\nwere named Rakshasas (*Vishnu Purana Book I. ch. v*.).\nThe *Bhagavata Purana* (*III, *20, 19-21) renders\nthe allegory differently. Brahma transformed himself into night\n(or ignorance) invested with a body, upon which the Yakshas and\nRakshasas seized, exclaiming \"Do not spare it; devour it.\"\nBrahma then cried out, \"Do not devour me, spare me.\"\nThis has an inner meaning of course. The \"body of Night\"\nis the darkness of ignorance, and it is the darkness of silence\nand secrecy. Now the Rakshasas are shown in almost every case\nto be Yogis, pious Saddhus and Initiates, a rather unusual occupation\nfor *demons. *The meaning then is that while we have power\nto dispel the darkness of ignorance, \"*devour it,*\"*\n*we have to preserve the sacred truth from profanation. \"Brahma\nis for the Brahmins alone,\" says that proud caste. The moral\nof the *fable *is evident.\n\n** The gradual evolution of man in the Secret Doctrine shows that\nall the later (to the profane the earliest) Races have their *physical\n*origin in the early Fourth Race. But it is the sub-race,\nwhich preceded the one that separated sexually, that is to be\n[[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 166 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n(human race), *and became oviparous. The emanations that came\nout of their bodies during the seasons of procreation were ovulary*;*\nthe small spheroidal nuclei developing into a large soft, egg-like\nvehicle, gradually hardened, when, after a period of gestation,\nit broke and the young human animal issued from it unaided, as\nthe fowls do in our race.*\"\n\nThis must seem to the reader ludicrously absurd. Nevertheless,\nit is strictly on the lines of evolutionary analogy, which science\nperceives in the development of the living animal species. First\nthe *moneron-*like* *procreation by self-division\n(*vide Haeckel*);* *then, after a few stages, the\noviparous, as in the case of the reptiles, which are followed\nby the birds; then, finally, the mammals with their *ovoviviparous\n*modes of producing their young ones.\n\nIf the term *ovoviviparous *is applied to some fish and\nreptiles, which hatch their eggs within their bodies, why should\nit not be applied to female mammalians, including woman? The ovule,\nin which, after impregnation, the development of the foetus takes\nplace, is an egg.\n\nAt all events, this conception is more philosophical than that\nof Eve with a suddenly created placenta giving birth to Cain,\nbecause of the Apple, when even the marsupial, the earliest of\nmammals, *is not placental *yet.\n\nMoreover, the *progressive *order of the methods of reproduction,\nas unveiled by science, is a brilliant confirmation of esoteric\nEthnology. It is only necessary to tabulate the data in order\nto prove our assertion. (Cf.* especially Schmidt*'*s\n*\"*Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism,*\" *p.\n*39, *et. seq., and Laing*'*s *\"*A Modern\nZoroastrian,*\" *pp. *102-111.)I\n\n1.* Fission: -*-\n\n(*a*)* *As seen in the division of the homogeneous\nspeck of protoplasm, known as Moneron or Amoeba, into two.\n\n(b)* *As seen in the division of the nucleated cell, in\nwhich the cell-nucleus splits into two sub-nuclei, which either\ndevelop within the original cell-wall or burst it, and multiply\noutside as independent entities. (*Cf., the First Root-Race.*)\n\nII.* Budding: -*-\n\nA small portion of the parent structure swells out at the surface\nand finally parts company, growing to the size of the original\norganism; *e.g.*, many vegetables, the sea-anemone, etc.\n(*Cf., the Second Root-Race.*)*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] regarded as the *spiritual\n*ancestors of our present generations, and especially of the\nEastern Aryan Races. Weber's idea that the Indo-Germanic Race\npreceded the Aryan *Vedic *Race is, to the Occultist, grotesque\nto the last degree.\n\n* Every process of healing and cicatrization in the higher animal\ngroups -- even in the case of reproduction of mutilated limbs\nwith the Amphibians -- is effected by *fission *and *gemmation\n*of the elementary morphological elements.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 167 MONADS AND ROUNDS.\n\nIII*. Spores: *--\n\nA single cell thrown off by the parent organism, which develops\ninto a multicellular organism reproducing the features of the\nlatter, *e.g*., bacteria and mosses.\n\nIV*. Intermediate Hermaphroditism:* --\n\nMale and female organs inhering in the same individual; *e.g*.,\nthe majority of plants, worms, and snails, etc.; allied to budding.\n(Cf. *Second and early Third Root-Races.*)\n\nV. *True sexual union: -*-\n\n(Cf.* later Third Root-Race.*)\n\nWe now come to an important point with regard to the double evolution\nof the human race. The Sons of Wisdom, or the *spiritual *Dhyanis,\nhad become \"intellectual\" through their contact with\nmatter, because they had already reached, during previous cycles\nof incarnation, that degree of intellect which enabled them to\nbecome independent and self-conscious entities, *on this plane\n*of matter. They were reborn only by reason of Karmic effects.\nThey *entered *those who were \"ready,\" and became\nthe Arhats, or *sages, *alluded to above. This needs explanation.\n\nIt does not mean that *Monads *entered forms in which other\nMonads already were. They were \"Essences,\" \"Intelligences,\"\nand *conscious spirits*;* *entities seeking to become\nstill more conscious by uniting with more developed matter. Their\nessence was too pure to be distinct from the universal essence;\nbut their \"Egos,\" or *Manas* (since they are\ncalled* Manasaputra, *born of \"Mahat,\" or Brahma)\nhad to pass through earthly human experiences to become *all-wise,\n*and be able to start on the returning ascending cycle. The\n*Monads *are not *discrete *principles, limited\nor conditioned, but rays from that one universal *absolute\n*Principle. The entrance into a dark room through the same\naperture of one ray of sunlight following another will not constitute\n*two* rays, but one ray intensified. It is not in the course\nof natural law that man should become a *perfect *septenary\nbeing, before the seventh race in the seventh Round. Yet he has\nall these principles latent in him from his birth. Nor is it part\nof the evolutionary law that the Fifth principle (*Manas*),\nshould receive its complete development before the *Fifth *Round.\nAll such prematurely developed intellects (on the *spiritual\n*plane) in our Race are *abnormal*;* *they are\nthose whom we call the \"Fifth-Rounders.\" Even in the\ncoming seventh Race, at the close of this Fourth Round, while\nour four lower principles will be fully developed, that of *Manas\n*will be only proportionately so. This limitation, however,\nrefers solely to the spiritual development. The intellectual,\non the physical plane, was reached during the Fourth Root-Race.\nThus, those who were \"half ready,\" who received \"but\na spark,\" constitute the average humanity which has to acquire\nits intellectuality during the present Manvantaric evolution,\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 168 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nafter which they will be ready in the next for the full reception\nof the \"Sons of Wisdom.\" While those which \"were\nnot ready\" at all, the latest Monads, which had hardly evolved\nfrom their last transitional and lower animal forms at the close\nof the Third Round, remained the \"narrow-brained\" of\nthe Stanza. This explains the otherwise unaccountable degrees\nof intellectuality among the various races of men -- the savage\nBushman and the European -- even now. Those tribes of savages,\nwhose reasoning powers are very little above the level of the\nanimals, are not the unjustly disinherited, or the *unfavoured,\n*as some may think -- nothing of the kind. They are simply\nthose *latest arrivals *among the human Monads, which *were*\n*not ready: *which have to evolve during the present Round,\nas on the three remaining globes (hence on four different planes\nof being) so as to arrive at the level of the average class when\nthey reach the Fifth Round. One remark may prove useful, as food\nfor thought to the student in this connection. The MONADS of the\nlowest specimens of humanity (the \"narrow-brained\"*\nsavage South-Sea Islander, the African, the Australian) *had\nno Karma to work out when first born as men, as their more favoured\nbrethren in intelligence had. *The former are spinning out\nKarma only now; the latter are burdened with past, present, and\nfuture Karma. In this respect the poor savage is more fortunate\nthan the greatest genius of *civilised countries.*\n\nLet us pause before giving any more such strange teachings. Let\nus try and find out how far any ancient Scriptures, and even Science,\npermit the possibility of, or even distinctly corroborate, such\nwild notions as are found in our Anthropogenesis.\n\nRecapitulating that which has been said we find: -- That the Secret\nDoctrine claims for man, (1) a polygenetic origin. (2) A variety\nof modes of procreation before humanity fell into the ordinary\nmethod of generation. (3) That the evolution of animals -- of\nthe mammalians at any rate -- follows that of man instead of preceding\nit. And this is diametrically opposed to the now generally accepted\ntheories of evolution and the descent of man from an animal ancestor.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The term here means neither the dolicho-cephalic nor the brachyo-cephalic,\nnor yet skulls of a smaller volume, but simply brains devoid of\nintellect generally. The theory which would judge of the intellectual\ncapacity of a man according to his cranial capacity, seems absurdly\nillogical to one who has studied the subject. The skulls of the\nstone period, as well as those of African Races (Bushmen included)\nshow that the first are above rather than below the average of\nthe brain capacity of the modern man, and the skulls of the last\nare on the whole (as in the case of Papuans and Polynesians generally)\nlarger by one cubic inch than that of the average Frenchman. Again,\nthe cranial capacity of the Parisian of to-day represents an average\nof 1437 cubic centimetres compared to 1523 of the Auvergnat.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 169 MONOGENISM OR POLYGENISM.\n\nLet us, by giving to Caesar what is Caesar's, examine, first of\nall, the chances for the polygenetic theory among the men of science.\n\nNow the majority of the Darwinian evolutionists incline to a polygenetic\nexplanation of the origin of Races. On this particular question,\nhowever, scientists are, as in many other cases, at sixes and\nsevens; they agree to disagree.\n\n\"Does man descend from one *single couple *or from\n*several groups -- *monogenism or polygenism? As far as\none can venture to pronounce on what in the absence of witnesses\n(?) will never be known (?), the second hypothesis is far the\nmost probable.\"* Abel Hovelacque, in his \"Science of\nLanguage,\" comes to a similar conclusion, arguing from the\nevidence available to a linguistic enquirer.\n\nIn an address delivered before the British Association, Professor\nW. H. Flower remarked on this question: --\n\n\"The view which appears best to accord with what is now known\nof the characters and distribution of the races of man . . . .\nis a modification of the monogenistic hypothesis (!). Without\nentering into the difficult question of the method of man's first\nappearance upon the world, we must assume for it a vast antiquity,\nat all events as measured by any historical standard. *If we\nhad any approach to a complete palaeontological record, the history\nof Man could be re-constructed, but nothing of the kind is forthcoming.*\"\n\nSuch an admission must be regarded as fatal to the dogmatism of\nthe physical Evolutionists, and as opening a wide margin to occult\nspeculations. The opponents of the Darwinian theory were, and\nstill remain, polygenists. Such \"intellectual giants\"\nas John Crawford and James Hunt discussed the problem and favoured\npolygenesis, and in their day there was a far stronger feeling\nin favour of than against this theory. It is only in 1864 that\nDarwinians began to be wedded to the theory of unity, of which\nMessrs. Huxley and Lubbock became the first *coryphai.*\n\nAs regards that other question, of the priority of man to the\nanimals in the order of evolution, the answer is as promptly given.\nIf man is really the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, then the teaching\nhas nothing so very impossible in it, and is but logical. For,\nman becomes that Macrocosm for the three lower kingdoms under\nhim. Arguing from a physical standpoint, all the lower kingdoms,\nsave the mineral -- which is light itself, crystallised and immetallised\n-- from plants to the creatures which preceded the first mammalians,\nall have been consolidated in their physical structures by means\nof the \"cast-off dust\" of those minerals, and *the\nrefuse of the human matter, whether from living or* *dead*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* A. Lefevre, \"Philosophy,\" p. 498.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 170 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*bodies, on which they fed and which gave them their outer\nbodies. *In his turn, man grew more physical, by re-absorbing\ninto his system that which he had given out, and which became\ntransformed in the living animal crucibles through which it had\npassed, owing to Nature's alchemical transmutations. There were\nanimals in those days of which our modern naturalists have never\ndreamed; and the stronger became physical material man, the giants\nof those times, the more powerful were his emanations. Once that\nAndrogyne \"humanity\" separated into sexes, transformed\nby Nature into child-bearing engines, it ceased to procreate its\nlike through drops of vital energy oozing out of the body. But\nwhile man was still ignorant of his procreative powers on the\nhuman plane, (before his Fall, as a believer in Adam would say,)\nall this vital energy, scattered far and wide from him, was used\nby Nature for the production of the first mammal-animal forms.\nEvolution is *an eternal cycle of becoming, *we are taught;\nand nature never leaves an atom unused. Moreover, from the beginning\nof the Round, all in Nature tends to become Man. All the impulses\nof the dual, centripetal and centrifugal Force are directed towards\none point -- **M**AN. The progress in the succession\nof beings, says Agassiz, \"consists in an increasing similarity\nof the living fauna, and, among the vertebrates, especially, in\nthe increasing resemblance to man. Man is the end towards which\nall *animal *creation has tended from the first appearance\nof the first palaeozoic fishes.\"*\n\nJust so; but \"the palaeozoic fishes\" being at the lower\ncurve of the arc of the evolution of *forms, *this Round\nbegan with astral man, the *reflection of the Dhyan Chohans,\ncalled the *\"*Builders.*\" Man* is the\nalpha and the omega of objective creation. *As said in \"*Isis\nUnveiled,*\" \"all things had their origin in spirit\n-- evolution having originally begun from above and proceeding\ndownwards, instead of the reverse, as taught in the Darwinian\ntheory.\"** Therefore, the tendency spoken of by the eminent\nnaturalist above quoted, is one inherent in every atom. Only,\nwere one to apply it to both sides of the evolution, the observations\nmade would greatly interfere with the modern theory, which has\nnow almost become (Darwinian) law.\n\nBut in citing the passage from Agassiz' work with approval, it\nmust not be understood that the occultists are making *any\nconcession *to the theory, which derives man from the animal\nkingdom. The fact that in this Round he preceded the mammalia\nis obviously not impugned by the consideration that the latter\n(mammalia) follow in the wake of man.\n\n-------\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"*Principles of Zoology,*\"* *p. 206.\n\n** Vol. I, p. 154.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 171 A SUGGESTIVE EXPLANATION.\n\n25. **H**OW DID THE **M**ANASA, THE\n**S**ONS OF **W**ISDOM ACT? **T**HEY\nREJECTED THE **S**ELF-BORN, (*the boneless*)*.\n***T**HEY ARE NOT READY. **T**HEY\nSPURNED THE (*First*)* ***S**WEAT-**B**ORN.*\n**T**HEY ARE NOT QUITE READY. **T**HEY\nWOULD NOT ENTER THE (*First*)* *EGG-BORN.**\n\nTo a Theist or a Christian this verse would suggest a rather theological\nidea: that of the Fall of the Angels through Pride. In the Secret\nDoctrine, however, the reasons for the refusal to incarnate in\n*half-ready *physical bodies seem to be more connected\nwith physiological than metaphysical reasons. Not all the organisms\nwere sufficiently ready. The incarnating powers chose the ripest\nfruits and spurned the rest.***\n\nBy a curious coincidence, when selecting a familiar name for the\ncontinent on which the first androgynes, the Third Root-Race,\nseparated, the writer chose, on geographical considerations, that\nof \"Lemuria,\" invented by Mr. P. L. Sclater. It is only\nlater, that reading Haeckel's \"Pedigree of Man,\" it\nwas found that the German \"Animalist\" had chosen the\nname for his late continent. He traces, properly enough, the centre\nof human evolution to \"Lemuria,\" but with a slight scientific\nvariation. Speaking of it as that \"cradle of mankind,\"\nhe pictures the gradual transformation of the anthropoid mammal\ninto the primeval savage!! Vogt, again, holds that in America\nMan sprang from a branch of the platyrrhine apes, *independently\n*of the origination of the African and Asian root-stocks from\nthe old world catarrhinians. Anthropologists are, as usual, at\nloggerheads on this question, as on many others. We shall examine\nthis claim in the light of esoteric philosophy in Stanza **VIII**.\nMeanwhile, let us give a few moments of attention to the various\nconsecutive modes of procreation according to the laws of Evolution.\n\nLet us begin by the mode of reproduction of the later sub-races\nof the Third human race, by those who found themselves endowed\nwith the* sacred fire *from the spark of higher and then\nindependent Beings, who were the psychic and spiritual parents\nof Man, as the lower *Pitar Devata *(the *Pitris*)*\n*were the progenitors of his physical body. That Third and\nholy Race consisted of men who, at their zenith, were described\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This is explained in the section which follows this series of\nStanzas in the allegory from the Puranas concerning Kandu, the\nholy sage, and Pramlocha, the nymph alleged to have hypnotised\nhim, (Vide § II, Commentary after St.I.), a suggestive allegory,\nscientifically, as the drops of perspiration, which she exuded,\nare the symbols of the spores of science (*Vide infra*).\n\n** This will be explained as we proceed. This unwillingness to\nfashion men, or create, is symbolized in the Puranas by Daksha\nhaving to deal with his opponent Narada, the \"strife-making\nascetic.\"\n\n**** Vide *Verse 24.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 172 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nas, \"towering giants of godly strength and beauty, and the\ndepositories of all the mysteries of Heaven and Earth.\" Have\nthey likewise *fallen, *if, then, incarnation was the *Fall?*\n\nOf this presently. The only thing now to be noted of these is,\nthat the chief gods and heroes of the Fourth and Fifth Races,\nas of later antiquity, are the *deified images of these men\nof the Third. *The days of their physiological purity, and\nthose of their so-called Fall, have equally survived in the hearts\nand memories of their descendants. Hence, the dual nature shown\nin those gods, both virtue and sin being exalted to their highest\ndegree, in the biographies composed by posterity. They were the\n*pre-Adamite *and the divine Races, with which even theology,\nin whose sight they are all \"the accursed Cainite Races,\"\nnow begins to busy itself.\n\nBut the action of \"spiritual progenitors\" of that Race\nhas first to be disposed of. A very difficult and abstruse point\nhas to be explained with regard to Stanzas 26 and 27. These say:\n--\n\n-------\n\n26. **W**HEN THE **S**WEAT-BORN PRODUCED\nTHE **E**GG-BORN, THE **T**WO-FOLD (*androgyne\nThird Race**),* *THE **M**IGHTY, THE **P**OWERFUL\nWITH **B**ONES, THE** L**ORDS OF **W**ISDOM\nSAID: \"**N**OW SHALL WE CREATE\" (*a*).\n\nWhy \"now\" -- and not earlier? This the following sloka\nexplains.\n\n-------\n\n27*. *(*Then*)* *THE **T**HIRD\n(*race*)* *BECAME THE VAHAN (*vehicle*) *OF\n*THE **L**ORDS OF* ***W**ISDOM.\n**I**T CREATED **S**ONS OF \"**W**ILL\nAND **Y**OGA,\" BY **K**RIYASAKTI\n(*b*), IT CREATED THEM, THE **H**OLY **F**ATHERS,\n**A**NCESTORS OF THE **A**RHATS. . .\n.\n\n(*a*) How did they *create, *since the \"Lords\nof Wisdom\" are identical with the Hindu Devas, who refuse\n\"to create\"? Clearly they are the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The evolutionist Professor Schmidt alludes to \"the fact\nof the separation of sexes, as to the derivation of which from\nspecies *once hermaphrodite *all (the believers in creation\nnaturally excepted) are assuredly of one accord.\" Such indeed\nis the incontestable evidence drawn from the presence of rudimentary\norgans. (*Cf., his *\"*Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism,*\"*\n*p. 159.) Apart from such palpable traces of a primeval hermaphroditism,\nthe fact may be noted that, as Laing writes, \"a study of\nembryology. . . . shows that in the *human higher animal *species\nthe distinction of sex is not developed until a *considerable\nprogress *has been made in the growth of the embryo.\"\n(\"*A Modern Zoroastrian,*\"* *p.106.) The\nLaw of Retardation -- operative alike in the case of human races,\nanimal species, etc., when a higher type has once been evolved\n-- still preserves hermaphroditism as the reproductive method\nof the majority of plants and many lower animals.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 173 THE SONS OF KRIYASAKTI.\n\n*Kumaras *of the Hindu Pantheon and Puranas, those elder\nsons of Brahma, \"Sanandana and the other sons of *Vedhas,*\"\nwho, previously created by him \"without desire or passion,\nremained chaste, full of holy wisdom and undesirous of progeny?\"*\n\nThe power, by which they first created, is just that which has\nsince caused them to be degraded from their high status to the\nposition of evil spirits, of Satan and his Host, created in their\nturn by the unclean fancy of exoteric creeds. It was by *Kriyasakti,\n*that mysterious and divine power latent in the will of every\nman, and which, if not called to life, quickened and developed\nby Yogi-training, remains dormant in 999,999 men out of a million,\nand gets atrophied. This power is explained in the \"Twelve\nSigns of the Zodiac,\"** as follows: --\n\n(*b*) \"*Kriyasakti -- *the mysterious *power\nof thought *which enables it to produce external, perceptible,\nphenomenal results by its own inherent energy. The ancients held\nthat any idea will manifest itself *externally, *if one's\nattention (and Will) is deeply concentrated upon it; similarly,\nan intense volition will be followed by the desired result. A\nYogi generally performs his wonders by means of Itchasakti (Will-power)\nand Kriyasakti.\"\n\nThe Third Race had thus created the so-called **S**ONS\nOF **W**ILL AND **Y**OGA, or the \"ancestors\"\n(the *spiritual *forefathers) of all the subsequent and\npresent Arhats, or Mahatmas, in a truly *immaculate *way.\nThey were indeed *created, *not *begotten, *as were\ntheir brethren of the Fourth Race, who were generated sexually\nafter the separation of sexes, the *Fall of Man. *For creation\nis but the result of will acting on phenomenal matter, the calling\nforth out of it the primordial divine *Light *and eternal\n*Life. *They were the \"holy seed-grain\" of the\nfuture Saviours of Humanity.\n\nHere we have to make again a break, in order to explain certain\ndifficult points, of which there are so many. It is almost impossible\nto avoid such interruptions. For explanations and a philosophical\naccount of the nature of those beings, which are now viewed as\nthe \"Evil\" and rebellious Spirits, the creators by Kriyasakti,\nthe reader is referred to the chapters on \"The Fallen Angels\"\nand \"The Mystic Dragons,\" in Part** II**.\nof this Volume.\n\nThe order of the evolution of the human Races stands thus in the\nFifth Book of the Commentaries, and was already given: --\n\n*The First men were Chhayas *(1)* *;* the second,\nthe *\"*Sweat-born*\"* *(2)*, the\nThird, *\"*Egg-born,*\"* and the holy Fathers\nborn by the power of Kriyasakti* (3);* the Fourth were\nthe children of the Padmapani *(Chenresi) (4).\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See \"*Vishnu Purana,*\"* *Book I., ch.\n7, para. 1.\n\n** See \"*Five Years of Theosophy,*\"* *p.\n777.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 174 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nOf course such primeval modes of procreation -- by the evolution\nof one's image, through drops of perspiration, after that by Yoga,\nand then by what people will regard as magic (Kriyasakti) -- are\ndoomed beforehand to be regarded as fairy-tales. Nevertheless,\nbeginning with the first and ending with the last, there is really\nnothing miraculous in them, nor anything which could not be shown\nnatural. This must be proven.\n\n1*. Chhaya-birth, *or that primeval mode of *sexless\n*procreation, the first Race having *oozed out, *so\nto say, from the bodies of the Pitris, is hinted at in a Cosmic\nallegory in the Puranas.* It is the beautiful allegory and story\nof Sanjna, the daughter of Viswakarman -- married to the Sun,\nwho, \"unable to endure the fervours of her lord,\" gave\nhim her *chhaya *(shadow, image, or *astral *body),\nwhile she herself repaired to the jungle to perform religious\ndevotions, or *Tapas. *The Sun, supposing the \"chhaya\"\nto be his wife begat by her children, like Adam with Lilith --\nan *ethereal shadow *also, as in the legend, though an\nactual living female monster millions of years ago.\n\nBut, perhaps, this instance proves little except the exuberant\nfancy of the Puranic authors. We have another proof ready. If\nthe materialised forms, which are sometimes seen oozing out of\nthe bodies of certain mediums could, instead of vanishing, be\nfixed and made solid -- the *creation *of the first Race\nwould become quite comprehensible. This kind of procreation cannot\nfail to be suggestive to the student. Neither the mystery nor\nthe *impossibility *of such a mode is certainly any greater\n-- while it is far more comprehensible to the mind of the true\nmetaphysical thinker - than the mystery of the conception of the\nfoetus, its gestation and birth as a child, as we now know it.\n\nNow to the curious and little understood corroboration in the\nPuranas about the \"Sweat-born.\"\n\n2. Kandu is a sage and a Yogi, eminent in holy wisdom and pious\nausterities, which, finally, awaken the jealousy of the gods,\nwho are represented in the Hindu Scriptures as being in never-ending\nstrife with the ascetics. Indra, the \"King of the Gods,\"**\nfinally sends one of his female Apsarasas to tempt the sage. This\nis no worse than Jehovah sending Sarah, Abraham's wife, to tempt\nPharaoh; but in truth it is those gods (and god), who are ever\ntrying to disturb ascetics and thus make them lose the fruit of\ntheir austerities, who ought to be regarded as \"tempting\ndemons,\" instead of applying the term to the Rudras, Kumaras,\nand Asuras, whose great sanctity and chastity seem a standing\nreproach to the Don Juanic gods of the Pantheon. But it is\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* *Vide *\"*Vishnu-Purana,*\"* *Book\n**III**., chap. 2.\n\n** In the oldest **MS.**** **of \"*Vishnu-Purana*\"*\n*in the possession of an Initiate in Southern India, the god\nis not Indra, but Kama, the god of love and desire. See text further\non.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 175 A SAINT -- HYPNOTISED.\n\nthe reverse that we find in all the Puranic allegories, and not\nwithout good esoteric reason.\n\nThe king of the gods (or Indra) sends a beautiful Apsarasas (nymph)\nnamed Pramlocha to seduce Kandu and disturb his penance. She succeeds\nin her unholy purpose and \"907 years six months and three\ndays\"* spent in her company seem to the sage as one day.\nWhen this psychological or hypnotic state ends, the Muni curses\nbitterly the creature who seduced him, thus disturbing his devotions.\n\"Depart, begone!\" he cries, \"vile bundle of illusions!\"\n. . . And Pramlocha, terrified, flies away, *wiping the perspiration\nfrom her body *with the leaves of the trees as she passes\nthrough the air. She went from tree to tree, and as, with the\ndusky shoots that crowned their summits, she dried her limbs,\nthe child she had conceived by the Rishi came forth from the pores\nof her skin in drops of perspiration. The trees received the living\ndews; and the winds collected them into one mass. \"This,\"\nsaid Soma (the Moon), \"I matured by my rays; and gradually\nit increased in size, till the exhalation that had rested on the\ntree tops became the lovely girl named Marisha.\"**\n\nNow Kandu stands here for the *First Race. *He is a son\nof the Pitris, hence one *devoid of mind, *which is hinted\nat by his being unable to discern a period of nearly one thousand\nyears from one day; therefore he is shown to be so easily deluded\nand blinded. Here is a variant of the allegory in *Genesis,\n*of Adam, born an image of clay, into which the \"Lord-god\"\nbreathes the *breath of life *but not of intellect and\ndiscrimination, which are developed only after he had tasted of\nthe fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; in other words when he has\nacquired the first development of Mind, and had implanted in him\n*Manas, *whose terrestrial aspect is of the Earth earthy,\nthough its highest faculties connect it with Spirit and the *divine\nSoul. *Pramlocha is the Hindu Lilith of the Aryan Adam; and\nMarisha, the daughter born of the perspiration from her pores,\nis the \"sweat-born,\" and stands as a symbol for the\nSecond Race of Mankind.\n\nAs remarked in the foot note (*vide supra*)* *it\nis not Indra, who now figures in the Puranas, but Kamadeva, the\ngod of love and desire, who sends Pramlocha on Earth. Logic, besides\nthe esoteric doctrine, shows that it must be so. For Kama is the\nking and lord of the Apsarasas, of whom Pramlocha is one; and,\ntherefore, when Kandu, in cursing her,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* These are the exoteric figures given in a purposely reversed\nand distorted way, being the figure of the duration of the cycle\nbetween the first and second human race. All Orientalists to the\ncontrary, there is not a word in any of the Puranas that has not\na special esoteric meaning.\n\n** \"*Vishnu Purana,*\"* *Book I., ch. 15.\nCf. also Vivien's temptation of Merlin (Tennyson), the same legend\nin Irish tradition.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 176 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nexclaims \"Thou hast performed the office assigned by the\nmonarch of the gods, go!\" he must mean by that monarch Kama\nand not Indra, to whom the Apsarasas are not subservient. For\nKama, again, is in the Rig Veda (*x*. 129) the personification\nof that feeling which leads and propels to creation. He was the\n*first movement *that stirred the **O**NE,\nafter its manifestation from the purely abstract principle, to\ncreate, \"Desire first arose in It, which was the *primal\ngerm of mind*;* *and which sages, searching with their\nintellect, have discovered to be the bond which connects Entity\nwith Non-Entity.\" A hymn in the *Atharva Veda *exalts\nKama into a supreme God and Creator, and says: \"Kama was\nborn the first. Him, neither gods nor fathers (Pitara) nor men\nhave equalled.\" . . . . The Atharva Veda identifies him with\n*Agni*, but makes him superior to that god. The *Taittariya\nBrahmana *makes him allegorically the son of Dharma (moral\nreligious duty, piety and justice) and of Sraddha (faith). Elsewhere\nKama is born from the heart of Brahma; therefore he is *Atma-Bhu\n*\"Self-Existent,\" and *Aja, *the \"unborn.\"\nHis sending Promlocha has a deep philosophical meaning; sent by\nIndra -- the narrative has none. As Eros was connected in early\nGreek mythology with the world's creation, and only afterwards\nbecame the sexual Cupid, so was Kama in his original Vedic character,\n(Harivansa making him a son of Lakshmi, who is Venus). The allegory,\nas said, shows the psychic element developing the physiological,\nbefore the birth of *Daksha, the progenitor of real physical\nmen, *made to be born from Marisha and before whose time living\nbeings and men were procreated \"by the will, by sight, by\ntouch and by Yoga,\" as will be shown.\n\nThis, then, is the allegory built on the mode of procreation of\nthe *Second *or the \"Sweat-born.\" The same for\nthe *Third Race *in its final development.\n\nMarisha, through the exertions of Soma, the Moon, is taken to\nwife by the *Prachetasas, *the production of the \"Mind-born\"\nsons of Brahma also*, from whom they beget the Patriarch Daksha,\na son of Brahma\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The text has: -- \"From Brahma were born mind-engendered\nprogeny, with forms and faculties derived from his corporeal nature,\n*embodied spirits *produced from the limbs (*gatra*)\nof *Dhimat *(all-wise deity). These beings were the abode\nof the three qualities of *deva-sarga *(divine creation,\nwhich, as the five-fold creation, is *devoid of clearness of\nperception, without reflection, *dull of nature). But as they\n*did not multiply themselves, *Brahma created \"other\nmind-born sons like himself,\" namely, the Brahma-rishis,\nor the Prajapati (ten and seven). Sanandana and the other sons\nof Vedhas (Brahma) were previously created, but, as shown elsewhere,\nthey were \"*without desire or passion, *inspired with\nholy wisdom, estranged from the universe and undesirous of progeny\"\n(*Book I, ch.* 7). These Sanandana and other Kumaras are\nthen the Gods, who after refusing to \"create progeny\"\nare forced to incarnate in senseless men. The reader must pardon\nunavoidable repetitions in view of the great number of the facts\ngiven.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 177 SWEAT-BORN AND ANDROGYNES.\n\nalso, in a former *Kalpa *or life, explain and add the\nPuranas, in order to mislead, yet speaking the truth.\n\n(3.) The early Third Race, then, is formed from drops of \"sweat,\"\nwhich, after many a transformation, grow into human bodies. This\nis not more difficult to imagine or realise than the growth of\nthe foetus from an imperceptible germ, which foetus develops into\na child, and then into a strong, heavy man. But this race again\nchanges its mode of procreation according to the Commentaries.\nIt is said to have emanated a *vis formativa, *which changed\nthe drops of perspiration into greater drops, which grew, expanded,\nand became ovoid bodies -- huge eggs. In these the human foetus\ngestated for several years. In the Puranas, Marisha, the daughter\nof Kandu, the sage, becomes the wife of the *Prachetasas *and\nthe mother of Daksha. Now Daksha is the father of the first *human-like\n*progenitors, having been born in this way. He is mentioned\nlater on. The evolution of man, the microcosm, is analogous to\nthat of the Universe, the macrocosm. His evolution stands between\nthat of the latter and that of the animal, for which man, in his\nturn, is a macrocosm.\n\nThen the race becomes: --\n\n(4.) The androgyne, or hermaphrodite. This process of men-bearing\nexplains, perhaps, why Aristophanes* describes the nature of the\nold race as *androgynous, *the form of every individual\nbeing rounded, \"having the back and sides as *in a circle,*\"*\n*whose \"manner of running was circular . . . . terrible\nin force and strength and with prodigious ambition.\" Therefore,\nto make them weaker, \"Zeus divided them (in the Third Root-Race)\ninto two, and Apollo (the Sun), under his direction, closed up\nthe skin.\" The Madagascans (the island belonged to Lemuria)\nhave a tradition about the first man, who lived at first without\neating, and, having indulged in food, a swelling appeared in his\nleg; this bursting, there emerged from it a female, who became\nthe mother of their race. Truly . . . \"We have our sciences\nof *Heterogenesis *and* Parthenogenesis, *showing\nthat the field is yet open. . . . . The polyps . . . . produce\ntheir offspring from themselves, like the buds and ramifications\nof a tree. . . . \" Why not the primitive *human *polyp?\nThe very interesting polyp *Stauridium *passes alternately\nfrom gemmation into the sex method of reproduction. Curiously\nenough, though it grows merely as a polyp on a stalk, it produces\ngemmules, which ultimately develop into a sea-nettle or *Medusa.\n*The Medusa is utterly dissimilar to its parent-organism,\nthe Stauridium. It also reproduces itself differently, by sexual\nmethod, and from the resulting eggs *Stauridia *once more\nput in\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See Plato's \"*Banquet.*\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 178 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nan appearance. This striking fact may assist many to understand\nthat a form may be evolved -- as in the *sexual *Lemurians\nfrom *Hermaphrodite *parentage -- quite unlike its immediate\nprogenitors. It is, moreover, unquestionable that in the case\nof *human* incarnations the law of Karma, racial or individual,\noverrides the subordinate tendencies of \"Heredity,\"\nits servant.\n\nThe meaning of the last sentence in the above-quoted Commentary\non Stanza 27, namely, that the Fourth Race were the children of\nPadmapani, may find its explanation in a certain letter from the\nInspirer of \"*Esoteric Buddhism*\"* *quoted\non p. 68. \"The majority of mankind belongs to the seventh\nsub-race of the Fourth Root-Race -- the above-mentioned Chinamen\nand their off-shoots and branchlets. (Malayans, Mongolians, Tibetans,\nHungarians, Finns, and even the Esquimaux are all remnants of\nthis last offshoot.)\"\n\nPadmapani, or Avalokiteswara in Sanskrit, is, in Tibetan, Chenresi.\nNow, Avalokiteswara is the great *Logos *in its higher\naspect and in the divine regions. But in the manifested planes,\nhe is, like Daksha, the progenitor (in a spiritual sense) of men.\nPadmapani-Avalokiteswara is called *esoterically *Bhodhisatva\n(or Dhyan Chohan) *Chenresi Vanchug, *\"the powerful\nand all-seeing.\" He is considered now as the greatest protector\nof Asia in general, and of Tibet in particular. In order to guide\nthe Tibetans and Lamas in holiness, and preserve the great Arhats\nin the world, this heavenly Being is credited with manifesting\nhimself from age to age in human form. A popular legend has it\nthat whenever faith begins to die out in the world, Padmapani\nChenresi, the \"lotus-bearer,\" emits a brilliant ray\nof light, and forthwith incarnates himself in one of the two great\nLamas -- the Dalai and Teschu Lamas; finally, it is believed that\nhe will incarnate as \"the most perfect Buddha\" in Tibet,\ninstead of in India, where his predecessors, the great Rishis\nand Manus had appeared in the beginning of our Race, but now appear\nno longer. Even the exoteric appearance of Dhyani Chenresi is\nsuggestive of the esoteric teaching. He is evidently, like Daksha,\nthe synthesis of all the preceding Races and the progenitor of\nall the *human *Races after the Third, the first complete\none, and thus is represented as the *culmination of the four\nprimeval *races in his *eleven-faced *form. It is a\ncolumn built in four rows, each series having three faces or heads\nof different complexions: the three faces for each race being\ntypical of its three fundamental physiological transformations.\nThe first is white (moon-coloured); the second is yellow; the\nthird, red-brown; the fourth, in which are only two faces -- the\nthird face being left a blank -- (a reference to the untimely\nend of the Atlanteans) is brown-black. Padmapani (Daksha) is seated\non the column, and forms the apex. In this reference\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 179 THE BIRTH-DAYS OF THE DHYANIS.\n\ncompare Stanza 39. The Dhyan Chohan is represented with four arms,\nanother allusion to the four races. For while two are folded,\nthe third hand holds a lotus (*Padmapani, *\"the lotus-bearer\"),\nthis flower symbolizing generation, and the fourth holds a serpent,\nemblem of the Wisdom in his power. On his neck is a rosary, and\non his head the sign of water\n-- matter, deluge -- while on his brow rests the third eye (Siva's\neye, that of spiritual insight). His name is \"Protector\"\n(of Tibet), \"Saviour of Humanity.\" On other occasions\nwhen he has only two arms, he is Chenresi, the Dhyani and Bhodisatva,\n*Chakna-padmakarpo, *\"he who holds a lotus.\"\nHis other name is Chantong, \"he of the 1,000 eyes,\"\nwhen he is endowed with a thousand arms and hands, on the palm\nof each of which is represented an eye of Wisdom, these arms radiating\nfrom his body like a forest of rays. Another of his names is Lokapati\nand Lokanatha (Sanskrit) \"Lord of the World\"; and Jigtengonpo\n(Tibetan), \"Protector and Saviour against evil\" of any\nkind.\n\nPadmapani, however, is the \"lotus-bearer\" symbolically\nonly for the profane; esoterically, it means the supporter of\nthe Kalpas, the last of which, the present Maha-Kalpa (the Varaha),\nis called Padma, and represents one half of the life of Brahma.\nThough a minor Kalpa, it is called Maha, \"great,\" because\nit comprises the age in which Brahma sprang from a lotus. Theoretically,\nthe Kalpas are infinite, but practically they are divided and\nsub-divided in Space and Time, each division -- down to the smallest\n-- having its own Dhyani as patron or regent. Padmapani (Avalokiteshwara)\nbecomes, in China, in his female aspect, Kwan-yin, \"who assumes\nany form, at pleasure, in order to save mankind.\" The knowledge\nof the astrological aspect of the constellations on the respective\n\"birth-days\" of these Dhyanis -- Amitabha (the O-mi-to\nFo, of China), included: *e.g.*, on the 19th day of the\nsecond month, on the 17th day of the eleventh month, and on the\n7th day of the third month, etc., etc. -- gives the Occultist\nthe greatest facilities for performing what are called \"magic\"\nfeats. The future of an individual is seen, with all its coming\nevents marshalled in order, in a *magic *mirror placed\nunder the ray of certain constellations. But -- beware of the\nreverse of the medal, **S**ORCERY.\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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