Chapter IX: Part I: Anthropogenesis (7)

That man can be shown to have lived in the Mid‐Tertiary Period, and in a geological age _when there did not yet exist one single specimen of the now known species of mammals_, is a statement that Science _cannot_ deny and which has now been proven by de Quatrefages.(361) But even supposing his existence in the Eocene Period is not yet demonstrated, what period of time has elapsed since the Cretaceous Period? We are aware of the fact that only the boldest Geologists dare place man further back than the Miocene Age. But how long, we ask, is the duration of those ages and periods since the Mesozoic time? On this, after a good deal of speculation and wrangling, Science is silent, the greatest authorities upon the subject being compelled to answer to the question: “We do not know.” This ought to show that the men of Science are no greater authorities in this matter than are the profane. If, according to Professor Huxley, “the time represented by the Coal formation alone would be six millions of years,”(362) how many more millions would be required to cover the time from the Jurassic Period, or the middle of the so‐called Reptilian Age—when the Third Race appeared—up to the Miocene, when the bulk of the Fourth Race was submerged?(363)

The writer is aware that those specialists, whose computations of the ages of the Globe and Man are the most liberal, have always had the shyer majority against them. But this proves very little, since the majority rarely, if ever, turns out to be right in the long run. Harvey stood alone for many years. The advocates for crossing the Atlantic with steamers were in danger of ending their days in a lunatic asylum. Mesmer is classed to this day—in the Encyclopædias—along with Cagliostro and St. Germain, as a charlatan and impostor. And now that Messrs. Charcot and Richet have vindicated Mesmer’s claims, and that Mesmerism under its new name of “Hypnotism”—a false nose on a very old face—is accepted by Science, it does not strengthen our respect for that majority, when we see the ease and unconcern with which its members treat of “Hypnotism,” of “telepathic impacts,” and its other phenomena. They speak of it, in short, as if they had believed therein since the days of Solomon, and had not, only a few years ago, called its votaries lunatics and impostors!(364)

The same revulsion of thought is in store for the long period of years which Esoteric Philosophy claims as the age of sexual and physiological mankind. Therefore even the Stanza which says: “_The Mind‐born, the boneless, gave being to the Will‐born with bones_;”—adding that this took place in the middle of the Third Race 18,000,000 years ago—has yet a chance of being accepted by future Scientists.

As far as nineteenth century thought is concerned, we shall be told, even by some personal friends who are imbued with an abnormal respect for the shifting conclusions of Science, that such a statement is absurd. How much more improbable will appear our further assertion, viz., that the antiquity of the First Race dates back millions of years beyond this again. For, although the exact figures are withheld—and it is out of the question to refer the incipient evolution of the primeval Divine Races with _certainty_ to either the early Secondary, or the Primary Ages of Geology—one thing is clear, that the figures 18,000,000 of years, which embrace the duration of _sexual, physical_, man, have to be enormously increased if the whole process of spiritual, astral and physical development is taken into account. Many Geologists, indeed, consider that the duration of the Quaternary and Tertiary Ages demands the concession of such an estimate; and it is quite certain that no terrestrial conditions whatever negative the hypothesis of an Eocene man, if evidence for his reality is forthcoming. Occultists, who maintain that the above date carries us far back into the Secondary or “Reptilian” Age, may refer to M. de Quatrefages in support of the possible existence of man in that remote antiquity. But with regard to the earliest Root‐Races the case is very different. If the thick agglomeration of vapours, charged with carbonic acid, that escaped from the soil, or was held in suspension in the atmosphere since the commencement of sedimentation, offered a fatal obstacle to the life of human organisms as now known, how, it will be asked, could the primeval men have existed? This consideration is, in reality, out of court. Such terrestrial conditions as were then operative had no touch with the plane on which the evolution of the _ethereal astral_ Races proceeded. Only in relatively recent geological periods, has the spiral course of cyclic law swept mankind into the lowest grade of physical evolution—the plane of gross material causation. In those early ages, _astral_ evolution was alone in progress, and the two planes, the astral and the physical,(365) though developing on parallel lines, had no direct point of contact with one another. It is obvious that a shadow‐like _ethereal_ man is related by virtue of his organization—if such it can be called—only to that plane from which the substance of his Upâdhi is derived.

There are things, perhaps, that may have escaped the far‐seeing—but not _all‐seeing_—eyes of our modern Naturalists; yet it is Nature herself who undertakes to furnish the missing links. Agnostic speculative thinkers have to choose between the version given by the Secret Doctrine of the East, and the hopelessly materialistic Darwinian and Biblical accounts of the origin of man; between no soul and no spiritual evolution, and the Occult doctrine which repudiates “special creation” and the “Evolutionist” anthropogenesis equally.

Again, to take up the question of “spontaneous generation”; life—as Science shows—has not always reigned on this terrestrial plane. There was a time when even the Hæckelian Moneron—that simple globule of Protoplasm—had not yet appeared at the bottom of the seas. Whence came the _Impulse_ which caused the molecules of Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, etc., to group themselves into the Urschleim of Oken, that organic “Slime,” now christened Protoplasm? What were the prototypes of the Monera? They, at least, could not have fallen in meteorites from other Globes already formed, Sir William Thomson’s wild theory to this effect notwithstanding. And even if they had so fallen; if our Earth got its supply of life‐germs from other Planets; who, or _what_, had carried them on to these Planets? Here, again, unless the Occult Teaching is accepted, we are compelled once more to face a _miracle_—to accept the theory of a personal, anthropomorphic Creator, the attributes and definitions of whom, as formulated by the Monotheists, clash as much with philosophy and logic, as they degrade the ideal of an infinite Universal Deity, before whose incomprehensible awful grandeur the highest human intellect feels dwarfed. Let not the modern Philosopher, while arbitrarily placing himself on the highest pinnacle of human intellectuality hitherto evolved, show himself spiritually and intuitionally so far below the conceptions of even the ancient Greeks, themselves on a far lower level, in these respects, than the Philosophers of Eastern Âryan antiquity. Hylozoism, when philosophically understood, is the highest aspect of Pantheism. It is the only possible escape from idiotic Atheism based on lethal materiality, and the still more idiotic anthropomorphic conceptions of the Monotheists; between which it stands on its own entirely neutral ground. Hylozoism _demands_ absolute Divine Thought, which would _pervade_ the numberless active, creating Forces, or “Creators,” which _Entities_ are moved by, and have their being in, from, and through, that Divine Thought; the latter, nevertheless, having no more personal concern in them or _their_ creations, than the Sun has in the sun‐flower and its seeds, or in vegetation in general. Such active “Creators” are known to exist and are believed in, because perceived and sensed by the _Inner_ Man in the Occultist. Thus the latter says that an Absolute Deity, having to be unconditioned and unrelated, cannot be thought of at the same time as an active, creating, one living God, without immediate degradation of the ideal.(366) A Deity that manifests in Space and Time—these two being simply the forms of THAT which is the Absolute ALL—can be but a fractional part of the whole. And since that “All” cannot be divided in its absoluteness, therefore that _sensed_ Creator (we say Creators) can be at best but the mere _aspect_ thereof. To use the same metaphor—inadequate to express the full idea, yet well adapted to the case in hand—these Creators are like the numerous rays of the solar orb, which remains unconscious of, and unconcerned in, the work; while its mediating agents, the rays, become the instrumental media every spring—the Manvantaric dawn of the Earth—in fructifying and awakening the dormant vitality inherent in Nature and its differentiated matter. This was so well understood in antiquity, that even the moderately religious Aristotle remarked that such work of direct creation would be quite unbecoming to God—ἀπρεπὲς τῷ Θεῷ. Plato and other philosophers taught the same: deity cannot set its own hand to creation—αὐτουργεῖν ἅπαντα. This Cudworth calls “Hylozoism.” As old Zeno is credited by Laërtius with having said:

Nature is a habit moved from itself, according to seminal
principles; perfecting and containing those several things which
in determinate times are produced from it, and acting agreeably to
that from which it was secreted.(367)

Let us return to our subject, pausing to think over it. Indeed, if there was vegetable life during those periods that could feed on the then deleterious elements; and if there was even animal life whose aquatic organization could be developed, notwithstanding the supposed scarcity of Oxygen, why could there not be human life also, in its incipient physical form, _i.e._, in a race of beings adapted for that geological period and its surroundings? Besides, Science confesses that it knows nothing of the real length of geological periods.

But the chief question before us is, whether it is quite certain that, from the time of that which is called the Azoic Age, there ever was such an atmosphere as that hypothesized by the Naturalists. Not all the Physicists agree with this idea. Were the writer anxious to corroborate the teachings of the Secret Doctrine by exact Science, it would be easy to show, on the admission of more than one Physicist, that the atmosphere has changed little, if at all, since the first condensation of the oceans—_i.e._, since the Laurentian Period, the Pyrolithic Age. Such, at any rate, is the opinion of Blanchard, S. Meunier, and even of Bischof—as the experiments of the last Scientist with basalts have shown. For were we to take the word of the majority of Scientists as to the quantity of deadly gases, and of elements entirely saturated with Carbon and Nitrogen, in which the vegetable and animal kingdoms are shown to have lived, thriven, and developed, then one would have to come to the curious conclusion that there were, in those days, oceans of _liquid carbonic acid_, instead of water. With such an element, it becomes doubtful whether the Ganoids, or even the Primitive Trilobites themselves could live in the oceans of the Primary Age—let alone in those of the Silurian, as shown by Blanchard.

The conditions that were necessary for the earliest Race of mankind, however, require no elements, whether simple or compound. That which was stated at the beginning is maintained. The spiritual ethereal Entity which lived in Spaces unknown to Earth, before the first sidereal “jelly‐speck” evolved in the Ocean of crude Cosmic Matter—billions and trillions of years before our globular speck in infinity, called Earth, came into being and generated the Monera in its drops, called oceans—needed no “elements.” The “Manu with soft bones,” could well dispense with Calcium Phosphate, as he had no bones, save in a figurative sense. And while even the Monera, however homogeneous their organism, still required physical conditions of life that would help them toward further evolution, the Being which became Primitive Man and the “Father of Man,” after evolving on planes of existence undreamed of by Science, could well remain impervious to any state of atmospheric conditions around him. The primitive ancestor, in Brasseur de Bourbourg’s _Popol Vuh_, who—in the Mexican legends—could act and live with equal ease under ground and water as upon the earth, answers only to the Second and early Third Races in our texts. And if the three kingdoms of Nature were so different in pre‐diluvian ages, why should not man have been composed of materials and combinations of atoms now entirely unknown to Physical Science? The plants and animals now known, in almost numberless varieties and species, have all developed, according to scientific hypotheses, from primitive and far fewer organic forms. Why should not the same have occurred in the case of man, the elements, and the rest? As the Commentary says:

_Universal Genesis starts from the One, breaks into Three, then Five, and finally culminates in Seven, to return into Four, Three, and One._

Stanza VII. From The Semi‐Divine Down To The First Human Races.

24. The higher Creators reject in their pride the Forms evolved by
the “Sons of Yoga.” 25. They will not incarnate in the early Egg‐
born. 26. They select the later Androgynes. 27. The first man
endowed with mind.

24. THE SONS OF WISDOM, THE SONS OF NIGHT,(368) READY FOR REBIRTH, CAME DOWN. THEY SAW THE VILE(369) FORMS OF THE FIRST THIRD(370) (_A_). “WE CAN CHOOSE,” SAID THE LORDS, “WE HAVE WISDOM.” SOME ENTERED THE CHHÂYÂS. SOME PROJECTED A SPARK. SOME DEFERRED TILL THE FOURTH.(371) FROM THEIR OWN RÛPA THEY FILLED(372) THE KÂMA.(373) THOSE WHO ENTERED BECAME ARHATS. THOSE WHO RECEIVED BUT A SPARK, REMAINED DESTITUTE OF KNOWLEDGE;(374) THE SPARK BURNED LOW (_B_). THE THIRD REMAINED MIND‐LESS. THEIR JÎVAS(375) WERE NOT READY. THESE WERE SET APART AMONG THE SEVEN.(376) THEY BECAME NARROW‐ HEADED. THE THIRD WERE READY. “IN THESE SHALL WE DWELL,” SAID THE LORDS OF THE FLAME AND OF THE DARK WISDOM (_C_).

This Stanza contains, in itself, the whole key to the mysteries of evil, the so‐called Fall of the Angels, and the many problems that have puzzled the brains of the Philosophers from the time that the memory of man began. It solves the secret of the subsequent inequalities or intellectual capacity, of birth or social position, and gives a logical explanation to the incomprehensible Karmic course throughout the æons which followed. The best explanation which can be given, in view of the difficulties of the subject, will now be attempted.

(_a_) Up to the Fourth Round, and even to the later part of the Third Race in this Round, _Man_—if the ever‐changing forms that clothed the Monads during the first three Rounds and the first two and a half Races of the present Round can be given that misleading name—is, so far, only an animal intellectually. It is only in the present _midway_ Round that he entirely develops in himself the Fourth Principle as a fit vehicle for the Fifth. But Manas will be relatively _fully_ developed only in the following Round, when it will have an opportunity of becoming entirely divine until the end of the Rounds. As Christian Schœttgen says in _Horæ Hebraicæ_, etc., the first terrestrial Adam “had only the breath of life,”—Nephesh, _but not the living Soul_.

(_b_) Here the inferior Races, of which there are still some analogues left—as the Australians, now fast dying out, and some African and Oceanic tribes—are meant. “They were not ready” signifies that the Karmic development of these Monads had not yet fitted them to occupy the forms of men destined for incarnation in higher intellectual Races. But this is explained later on.

(_c_) The _Zohar_ speaks of “Black Fire,” which is Absolute Light—Wisdom. To those who, prompted by old theological prejudice, may say: But the Asuras are the rebel Devas, the opponents of the Gods—hence Devils, and the Spirits of Evil—it is answered: Esoteric Philosophy admits neither good nor evil _per se_, as existing independently in Nature. The cause for both is found, as regards the Kosmos, in the necessity of contraries or contrasts, and with respect to man, in his human nature, his ignorance and passions. There are no Devils or the utterly depraved, as there are no Angels absolutely perfect, though there may be Spirits of Light and of Darkness; thus Lucifer—the Spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought—is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sand‐banks of Life, for Lucifer is the Logos in his highest, and the “Adversary” in his lowest aspect—both of which are reflected in our Ego. Lactantius, speaking of the Nature of Christ, makes the Logos, the Word, “the _first‐born brother of Satan_, and _the first of all creatures_.”(377)

The _Vishnu Purâna_ describes these primeval creatures (Tiryaksrotas) with _crooked_ digestive canals:

[They were] endowed with inward manifestations, but mutually in
ignorance _about their kind and nature_.(378)

The twenty‐eight kinds of Badhas, or “imperfections,” do not apply, as Wilson thought, to the animals now known, which are specified by him, for they did not exist in those geological periods. This is quite plain from the said work, in which the first created are the “five‐fold (immovable) world,” minerals and vegetables; then come those fabulous animals, Tiryaksrotas—the monsters of the Abyss, slain by the “Lords,” of Stanzas II and III; then the Ûrdhvasrotas, the happy celestial beings, which feed on ambrosia; and lastly, the Arvâksrotas, human beings—Brahmâ’s seventh “creation” so‐called. But these “creations,” including the latter, did not occur on this Globe, wherever else they may have taken place. It is not Brahmâ who creates things and men on this Earth, but the Chief and Lord of the Prajâpatis, the Lords of Being and terrestrial Creation. “Obeying the command of Brahmâ,” Daksha—the synthesis, or the aggregate, of the Terrestrial Creators and Progenitors, the Pitris included—made superior and inferior (vara and avara) things, “referring to putra” progeny, and “_bipeds_ and _quadrupeds_, and subsequently, by his will [referring to the Sons of Will and Yoga], gave birth to females”(379)—_i.e._, separated the androgynes. Here, again, we have “bipeds” or men, created before the “quadrupeds” as in the Esoteric Teachings.

Since, in the exoteric accounts, the Asuras are the first Beings created from the “Body of Night,” while the Pitris issue from that of “Twilight”; the “Gods” being placed by Parâshara, in the _Vishnu Purâna_, between the two, and shown to evolve from the “Body of the Day,” it is easy to discover a determined purpose to veil the order of creation. Man is the Arvâksrota coming from the “Body of the Dawn”; and elsewhere, man is again referred to, when the Creator of the World, Brahmâ, is shown “creating fierce beings, who were denominated Bhûtas, and eaters of flesh,” or as the text has it, “fiends, frightful from being monkey‐coloured and carnivorous.”(380) Whereas the Râkshasas are generally translated by “evil Spirits” and “enemies of the Gods,” which identifies them with the Asuras. In the _Râmâyana_, when Hanumân is reconnoitering the enemy in Lankâ, he finds there Râkshasas, some hideous, “while some were beautiful to look upon,” and, in the _Vishnu Purâna_, there is a direct reference to their becoming the Saviours of “Humanity,” or of Brahmâ.

The allegory is very ingenious. Great intellect and too much knowledge are a two‐edged weapon in life, and instruments for evil as well as for good. When combined with selfishness, they will make of the whole of Humanity a footstool for the elevation of him who possesses them, and a means for the attainment of his objects; while, applied to altruistic humanitarian purposes, they may become the means of the salvation of many. At all events, the absence of self‐consciousness and intellect will make of man an idiot, a brute in human form. Brahmâ is Mahat, the Universal Mind; hence the too selfish among the Râkshasas showing the desire to become possessed of it all—to “devour” Mahat. The allegory is transparent.

At any rate, Esoteric Philosophy identifies the pre‐Brâhmanical Asuras, Rudras,(381) Râkshasas and all the “Adversaries” of the Gods in the allegories, with the Egos, which, by incarnating in the still witless man of the Third Race, made him _consciously_ immortal. They are, then, during the cycle of Incarnations, the true _dual_ Logos—the conflicting and two‐ faced Divine Principle in Man. The Commentary that follows, and the next Stanzas may, no doubt, throw more light on this very difficult tenet, but the writer does not feel competent to give it out fully. Of the succession of Races, however, the Commentary says:

_First come the __SELF‐EXISTENT__ on this Earth. They are the __“__Spiritual Lives__”__ projected by the absolute __WILL__ and __LAW__, at the Dawn of every Rebirth of the Worlds. These Lives are the divine __“__Shishta__”__ [the Seed‐Manus, or the Prajâpatis and the Pitris]._

From these proceed:

1. _The First Race, the __“__Self‐born,__”__ which are the [Astral] Shadows of their Progenitors. The Body was devoid of all understanding [mind, intelligence, and will]. The Inner Being [the Higher Self, or Monad], though within the earthly frame, was unconnected with it. The link, the Manas, was not there as yet._

2. _From the First [Race] emanated the Second, called the __“__Sweat‐ born__”_(_382_)_ and the __“__Boneless.__”__ This is the Second Root‐Race, endowed by the Preservers [Râkshasas]_(_383_)_ and the Incarnating Gods [the Asuras and Kumâras] with the first primitive and weak Spark [the germ of intelligence]...._

And from these in turn proceeds:

3. _The Third Root‐Race, the __“__Two‐fold__”__ [Androgynes]. The first Races thereof are Shells, till the last is __“__inhabited__”__ [i.e., informed] by the Dhyânîs._

The Second Race, as stated above, being also sexless, evolved out of itself, at its beginning, the Third, Androgyne Race by an analogous, but already more complicated process. As described in the Commentary, the very earliest of that Race were:

_The __“__Sons of Passive Yoga.__”_(_384_)_ They issued from the Second Manushyas [Human Race], and became oviparous. The emanations that came out of their bodies during the seasons of procreation were ovulary; the small spheroidal nuclei developing into a large soft, egg‐like vehicle, gradually hardened, when, after a period of gestation, it broke and the young human animal issued from it unaided, as the fowls do in our Race._

This must seem to the reader ludicrously absurd. Nevertheless, it is strictly on the lines of evolutionary analogy, which Science perceives in the development of the living animal species. First the moneron‐like procreation by “self‐division”; then, after a few stages, the oviparous, as in the case of the reptiles, which are followed by the birds; then, finally, the mammals with their ovoviviparous modes of producing their young ones.

If the term “ovoviviparous” is applied to some fish and reptiles, which hatch their eggs within their bodies, why should it not be applied to female mammalians, including woman? The ovule, in which, after impregnation, the development of the fœtus takes place, is an egg.

At all events, this conception is more philosophical than that of Eve with a suddenly created placenta giving birth to Cain, because of the “apple,” when even the marsupial, the earliest of mammals, is not placental yet.

Moreover, the progressive order of the methods of reproduction, as unveiled by Science, is a brilliant confirmation of Esoteric Ethnology, It is only necessary to tabulate the data in order to prove our assertion.(385)

I. Fission.

(_a_) As seen in the division of the homogeneous speck of Protoplasm, known as Moneron or Amœba, into two.

(_b_) As seen in the division of the nucleated cell, in which the cell‐ nucleus splits into two sub‐nuclei, which either develop within the original cell‐wall or burst it, and multiply outside as independent entities. (_Cf._ the First Root‐Race.)

II. Budding.

A small portion of the parent structure swells out at the surface and finally parts company, growing to the size of the original organism; _e.g._, many vegetables, the sea‐anemone, etc. (_Cf._ the Second Root‐ Race.)(386)

III. Spores.

A single cell thrown off by the parent organism, which develops into a multicellular organism reproducing the features of the latter, _e.g._, Bacteria and mosses.

IV. Intermediate Hermaphroditism.

Male and female organs inhering in the same individual; _e.g._, the majority of plants, worms, and snails, etc.; allied to budding. (_Cf._ Second and early Third Root‐Races.)

V. True Sexual Union.

(_Cf._ later Third Root‐Race.)

We now come to an important point with regard to the double evolution of the human race. The Sons of Wisdom, or the _Spiritual_, Dhyânîs had become “intellectual” through their contact with Matter, because they had already reached, during previous cycles of incarnation, that degree of intellect which enabled them to become independent and self‐conscious entities, _on this plane_ of Matter. They were reborn only by reason of Karmic effects. They _entered_ those who were “ready,” and became the Arhats, or Sages, alluded to above. This needs explanation.

It does not mean that Monads entered Forms in which other Monads already were. They were “Essences,” “Intelligences,” and Conscious Spirits; Entities seeking to become still more conscious by uniting with more developed Matter. Their essence was too pure to be distinct from the Universal Essence; but their “Egos,” or Manas (since they are called Mânasaputra, born of Mahat, or Brahmâ) had to pass through earthly human experiences to become _all‐wise_, and be able to start on the returning ascending cycle. The Monads are not _discrete_ principles, limited or conditioned, but rays from that one universal _absolute_ Principle. The entrance of one ray of sunlight following another through the same aperture into a dark room will not constitute _two_ rays, but one ray intensified. It is not in the course of natural law that man should become a _perfect_ Septenary Being before the Seventh Race in the Seventh Round. Yet he has all these principles latent in him from his birth. Nor is it part of the evolutionary law that the Fifth Principle (Manas), should receive its complete development before the Fifth Round. All such prematurely developed intellects (on the _spiritual_ plane) in our Race are _abnormal_; they are those whom we have called the “Fifth‐Rounders.” Even in the coming Seventh Race, at the close of this Fourth Round, while our four lower principles will be fully developed, that of Manas will be only proportionately so. This limitation, however, refers solely to the spiritual development. The intellectual, on the physical plane, was reached during the Fourth Root‐Race. Thus, those who were “half ready,” who received “but a spark,” constitute the average humanity which have to acquire their intellectuality during the present Manvantaric evolution, after which they will be ready in the next for the full reception of the “Sons of Wisdom.” While those which “were not ready” at all, the latest Monads, which had hardly evolved from their last transitional and lower animal forms at the close of the Third Round, remained the “narrow‐ brained” of the Stanza. This explains the otherwise unaccountable degrees of intellectuality among the various races of men—the savage Bushman and the European—even now. Those tribes of savages, whose reasoning powers are very little above the level of the animals, are not the unjustly disinherited, or the “unfavoured,” as some may think—nothing of the kind. They are simply those _latest arrivals_ among the human Monads, which “were not ready”; which have to evolve during the present Round, as also on the three remaining Globes—hence on four different planes of being—so as to arrive at the level of the average class when they reach the Fifth Round. One remark may prove useful, as food for thought to the student in this connection. The Monads of the lowest specimens of humanity—the “narrow‐brained”(387) savage South‐Sea Islander, the African, the Australian—_had no Karma to work out when first born as men, as their more favoured brethren in intelligence had_. The former are spinning out Karma only now; the latter are burdened with past, present and future Karma. In this respect the poor savage is more fortunate than the greatest genius of _civilized countries_.

Let us pause before giving any more such strange teachings. Let us try and find out how far any ancient Scriptures, and even Science, permit the possibility of, or even distinctly corroborate, such wild notions as are found in our Anthropogenesis.

Recapitulating that which has been said, we find that the Secret Doctrine claims for man: (1) a polygenetic origin; (2) a variety of modes of procreation before humanity fell into the ordinary method of generation; (3) that the evolution of animals—of the mammalians at any rate—follows that of man instead of preceding it. And this is diametrically opposed to the now generally accepted theories of evolution and the descent of man from an animal ancestor.

Let us, giving to Cæsar what is Cæsar’s, examine, first of all, the chances for the polygenetic theory among the men of Science.

Now the majority of the Darwinian Evolutionists incline to a polygenetic explanation of the origin of races. On this particular question, however, as in many other cases, Scientists are at sixes and sevens; they agree to disagree.

Does man descend from one _single couple_ or from _several
groups_—monogenism or polygenism? As far as one can venture to
pronounce on what in the absence of witnesses [?] will never be
known [?], the second hypothesis is far the most probable.(388)

Abel Hovelacque, in his _Science of Language_, comes to a similar conclusion, arguing from the evidence available to a linguistic enquirer.

In an address delivered before the British Association, Professor W. H. Flower remarked on this question:

The view which appears best to accord with what is now known of
the characters and distribution of the races of man ... is a
modification of the monogenistic hypothesis[!]. Without entering
into the difficult question of the method of man’s first
appearance upon the world, we must assume for it a vast antiquity,
at all events as measured by any historical standard. _If we had
any approach to a complete palæontological record, the history of
man could be re‐constructed, but nothing of the kind is
forthcoming._

Such an admission must be regarded as fatal to the dogmatism of the Physical Evolutionists, and as opening a wide margin to Occult speculations. The opponents of the Darwinian theory were, and still remain, polygenists. Such “intellectual giants” as John Crawford and James Hunt discussed the problem and favoured polygenesis, and in their day there was a far stronger feeling in favour of than against this theory. It was only in 1864 that Darwinians began to be wedded to the theory of unity, of which Messrs. Huxley and Lubbock became the first coryphæi.

As regards the other question, of the priority of man to the animals in the order of evolution, the answer is as promptly given. If man is really the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, then the teaching has nothing so very impossible in it, and is but logical. For, man becomes that Macrocosm for the three lower kingdoms under him. Arguing from a physical standpoint, all the lower kingdoms, save the mineral—which is light itself, crystallized and immetallized—from plants to the creatures which preceded the first mammalians, all have been consolidated in their physical structures by means of the “cast‐off dust” of those minerals, and _the refuse of the human matter, whether from living or dead bodies, on which they fed and which gave them their outer bodies_. In his turn also, man grew more physical, by reäbsorbing into his system that which he had given out, and which became transformed in the living animal crucibles through which it had passed, owing to Nature’s alchemical transmutations. There were animals in those days of which our Modern Naturalists have never dreamed; and the stronger became physical material man—the giants of those times—the more powerful were his emanations. Once that Androgyne Humanity separated into sexes, transformed by Nature into child‐bearing engines, it ceased to procreate its like through drops of vital energy oozing out of the body. But while man was still ignorant of his procreative powers on the human plane—before his Fall, as a believer in Adam would say—all this vital energy, scattered far and wide from him, was used by Nature for the production of the first mammal‐animal forms. Evolution is _an eternal cycle of becoming_, we are taught; and Nature never leaves an atom unused. Moreover, from the beginning of the Round, all in Nature tends to become Man. All the impulses of the dual, centripetal and centrifugal Force are directed towards one point—_Man_. The progress in the succession of beings, says Agassiz:

Consists in an increasing similarity of the living fauna, and
among the vertebrates, especially, in the increasing resemblance
to man. Man is the end towards which all _animal_ creation has
tended from the first appearance of the first palæozoic
fishes.(389)

Just so; but the “palæozoic fishes” are at the lower curve of the arc of the evolution of _forms_, and this Round began with Astral Man, the _reflection_ of the Dhyân Chohans, called the “Builders.” Man is the _alpha and the omega_ of objective creation. As said in _Isis Unveiled_:

All things had their origin in Spirit—evolution having originally
begun from above and proceeding downwards, instead of the reverse,
as taught in the Darwinian theory.(390)

Therefore, the tendency spoken of by the eminent Naturalist above quoted is one inherent in every atom. Only, were one to apply it to both sides of evolution, the observations made would greatly interfere with the modern theory, which has now almost become (Darwinian) law.

But in citing the passage from Agassiz’ work with approval, it must not be understood that the Occultists are making any _concession_ to the theory which derives man from the animal kingdom. The fact that in this Round he preceded the mammalia is obviously not impugned by the consideration that the latter follow in the wake of man.

25. HOW DID THE MÂNASA, THE SONS OF WISDOM, ACT? THEY REJECTED THE SELF‐ BORN.(391) THEY ARE NOT READY. THEY SPURNED THE SWEAT‐BORN.(392) THEY ARE NOT QUITE READY. THEY WOULD NOT ENTER THE FIRST EGG‐BORN.(393)

To a Theist or a Christian this verse would suggest a rather theological idea: that of the Fall of the Angels through Pride. In the Secret Doctrine, however, the reasons for the refusal to incarnate in _half‐ ready_ physical bodies seem to be more connected with physiological than metaphysical reasons. Not all the organisms were sufficiently ready. The Incarnating Powers chose the ripest fruits and spurned the rest.

By a curious coincidence, when selecting a familiar name for the continent on which the first Androgynes, the Third Root‐Race, separated, the writer chose, on geographical considerations, that of “Lemuria,” invented by Mr. P. L. Sclater. It was only later that, on reading Hæckel’s _Pedigree of Man_, it was found that the German “Animalist” had chosen the name for his late continent. He traces, properly enough, the centre of human evolution to Lemuria, but with a slight scientific variation. Speaking of it as that “cradle of mankind,” he pictures the gradual transformation of the anthropoid mammal into the primeval savage!! Vogt, again, holds that in America man sprang from a branch of the platyrrhine apes, _independently_ of the origination of the African and Asian root‐stocks from the old world catarrhinians. Anthropologists are, as usual, at loggerheads on this question, as on many others. We shall examine this claim in the light of Esoteric Philosophy in Stanza VIII. Meanwhile, let us give a few moments of attention to the various consecutive modes of procreation according to the laws of Evolution.

Let us begin by the mode of reproduction of the later sub‐races of the Third Human Race, by those who found themselves endowed with the “Sacred Fire” from the Spark of higher and then independent Beings, who were the psychic and spiritual Parents of Man, as the lower Pitri Devatâs (the Pitris) were the Progenitors of his physical body. That Third and holy Race consisted of men who, at their zenith, were described as “towering giants of godly strength and beauty, and the depositories of all the mysteries of Heaven and Earth.” Have they likewise _fallen_, if, then, incarnation was the “Fall”?

Of this presently. The only thing now to be noted of these is, that the chief Gods and Heroes of the Fourth and Fifth Races, as of later antiquity, are the _deified images of these Men of the Third_. The days of their physiological purity, and those of their so‐called Fall, have equally survived in the hearts and memories of their descendants. Hence, the dual nature shown in these Gods, both virtue and sin being exalted to their highest degree, in the biographies composed by posterity. They were the Pre‐Adamite and the Divine Races, with which even Theology, in whose sight they are all the “accursed Cainite races,” now begins to busy itself.

But the action of the “Spiritual Progenitors” of that Race has first to be disposed of. A very difficult and abstruse point has to be explained with regard to Shlokas 26 and 27.

26. WHEN THE SWEAT‐BORN PRODUCED THE EGG‐BORN, THE TWO‐FOLD,(394) THE MIGHTY, THE POWERFUL WITH BONES, THE LORDS OF WISDOM SAID: “NOW SHALL WE CREATE.”

Why “now”—and not earlier? This the following Shloka explains.

27. THE THIRD RACE BECAME THE VÂHAN(395) OF THE LORDS OF WISDOM. IT CREATED SONS OF WILL AND YOGA, BY KRIYÂSHAKTI IT CREATED THEM, THE HOLY FATHERS, ANCESTORS OF THE ARHATS....

How did they “create,” since the “Lords of Wisdom” are identical with the Hindû Devas, who refuse to “create”? Clearly they are the Kumâras of the Hindû Pantheon and _Purânas_, those Elder Sons of Brahmâ:

Sanandana and the other sous of Vedhas [who], previously created
by him ... without desire or passion, [remained chaste] inspired
with holy wisdom ... and undesirous of progeny.(396)

The power, by which they first created, is that which has since caused them to be degraded from their high status to the position of Evil Spirits, of Satan and his Host—created in their turn by the unclean fancy of exoteric creeds. It was by Kriyâshakti, that mysterious and divine power, latent in the _will_ of every man, which, if not called to life, quickened and developed by Yoga‐training, remains dormant in 999,999 men out of a million, and so gets atrophied. This power is explained in the “Twelve Signs of the Zodiac,”(397) as follows:

_Kriyâshakti_:—The mysterious _power of thought_ which enables it
to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own
inherent energy. The ancients held that any idea will manifest
itself _externally_, if one’s attention [and _will_] is deeply
concentrated upon it. Similarly, an intense volition will be
followed by the desired result.

A Yogî generally performs his wonders by means of Ichchhâshakti
(Will‐power) and Kriyâshakti.

The Third Race had thus created the so‐called “Sons of Will and Yoga,” or the “Ancestors”—the _Spiritual_ Forefathers—of all the subsequent and present Arhats, or Mahâtmâs, in a truly _immaculate_ way. They were indeed _created_, not _begotten_, as were their brethren of the Fourth Race, who were generated sexually after the separation of sexes, the “Fall of Man.” For Creation is but the result of Will acting on phenomenal Matter, the calling forth out of it the Primordial Divine Light and Eternal Life. They were the “Holy Seed Grain” of the future Saviours of Humanity.

Here we have to again make a break, in order to explain certain difficult points, of which there are so many. It is almost impossible to avoid such interruptions.(398)

The order of the evolution of the Human Races stands as follows in the Fifth Book of the Commentaries, and has already been given:

_The first men were Chhâyâs (1); the Second, the __“__Sweat‐born__”__ (2); the Third, __“__Egg‐born,__”__ and the holy Fathers born by the power of Kriyâshakti (3); the Fourth were the children of the Padmapâni [Chenresi] (4)._

Of course such primeval modes of procreation—by the evolution of one’s image; through drops of perspiration; after that by Yoga; and then by what people will regard as magic (Kriyâshakti)—are doomed beforehand to be regarded as fairy‐tales. Nevertheless, beginning with the first and ending with the last, there is really nothing miraculous in them, nor anything which may not be shown to be natural. This must be proven.

1. Chhâyâ‐birth, or that primeval mode of _sexless_ procreation—the First Race having _oozed out_, so to say, from the bodies of the Pitris—is hinted at in a cosmic allegory in the _Purânas_.(399) It is the beautiful allegory and story of Sanjñâ, the daughter of Vishvakarman—married to the Sun, who, “unable to endure the fervours of her Lord,” gave him her Chhâyâ (shadow, image, or astral body), while she herself repaired to the jungle to perform religious devotions, or Tapas. The Sun, supposing the Chhâyâ to be his wife, begat by her children, like Adam with Lilith—an _ethereal shadow_ also, as in the legend, though an actual living female monster millions of years ago.

But, perhaps, this instance proves little except the exuberant fancy of the Paurânic authors. We have another proof ready. If the materialized forms, which are sometimes seen oozing out of the bodies of certain mediums could, instead of vanishing, be fixed and made solid—the “creation” of the First Race would become quite comprehensible. This kind of procreation cannot fail to be suggestive to the student. Neither the mystery nor the impossibility of such a mode is certainly any greater—while it is far more comprehensible to the mind of the true metaphysical thinker—than the mystery of the conception of the fœtus, its gestation and birth as a child, as we now know it.

Now to the curious and little understood corroboration in the _Purânas_ about the “Sweat‐born.”

2. Kandu is a sage and a Yogî, eminent in holy wisdom and pious austerities, which, finally, awaken the jealousy of the Gods, who are represented in the Hindû Scriptures as being in never‐ending strife with the Ascetics. Indra, the “King of the Gods,”(400) finally sends one of his female Apsarases to tempt the sage. This is no worse than Jehovah sending Sarah, Abraham’s wife, to tempt Pharaoh; but in truth it is these Gods (and God), who are ever trying to disturb Ascetics and thus make them lose the fruit of their austerities, who ought to be regarded as “tempting demons,” instead of applying the term to the Rudras, Kumâras, and Asuras, whose great sanctity and chastity seem a standing reproach to the Don Juanic Gods of the Pantheon. But it is the reverse that we find in all the Paurânic allegories, and not without good esoteric reason.

The King of the Gods, or Indra, sends a beautiful Apsaras (nymph) named Pramlochâ to seduce Kandu and disturb his penance. She succeeds in her unholy purpose and “nine hundred and seven years six months and three days”(401) spent in her company seem to the Sage as one day. When this psychological or hypnotic state ends, the Muni bitterly curses the creature who has seduced him, thus disturbing his devotions. “Depart, begone!” he cries, “vile bundle of delusions!” And Pramlochâ, terrified, flies away, _wiping the perspiration __ from her body_ with the leaves of the trees as she passes through the air.

The nymph went from tree to tree, and, as, with the dusky shoots
that crowned their summits, she dried her limbs, the child she had
conceived by the Rishi came forth from the pores of her skin in
drops of perspiration. The trees received the living dews; and the
winds collected them into one mass. “This,” said Soma [the Moon],
“I matured by my rays; and gradually it increased in size, till
the exhalation that had rested on the tree tops became the lovely
girl named Mârishâ.”(402)

Now Kandu stands for the First Race. He is a son of the Pitris, hence one “devoid of mind,” a fact hinted at by his being unable to discern a period of nearly one thousand years from one day; therefore he is shown to be so easily deluded and blinded. Here is a variant of the allegory in _Genesis_, of Adam, born an image of clay, into which the “Lord God” breathes the “breath of life” but not of intellect and discrimination, which are developed only after he had tasted of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; in other words when he has acquired the first development of Mind, and had implanted in him Manas, whose terrestrial aspect is of the earth earthy, though its highest faculties connect it with Spirit and the Divine Soul. Pramlochâ is the Hindû Lilith of the Âryan Adam; and Mârishâ, the daughter born of the perspiration from her pores, is the “Sweat‐born,” and stands as a symbol for the Second Race of mankind.

It is not Indra, who in this case figures in the _Purânas_, but Kâmadeva, the God of love and desire, who sends Pramlochâ on Earth. Logic, as well as the Esoteric Doctrine, shows that it must be so. For Kâma is the king and lord of the Apsarases, of whom Pramlochâ is one; and, therefore, when Kandu, cursing her, exclaims: “Thou hast performed the office assigned by the monarch of the gods, go!”—he must mean by that monarch Kâma, and not Indra, to whom the Apsarases are not subservient. For Kâma, again, is in the _Rig Veda_(403) the personification of that feeling which leads and propels to creation. He was the _First Movement_ that stirred the ONE, after its manifestation from the purely Abstract Principle, to create.

Desire first arose in IT, which was the Primal Germ of Mind; and
which Sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered to be
the bond which connects Entity with Non‐Entity.

A Hymn in the _Atharva Veda_ exalts Kâma into a supreme God and Creator, and says:

Kâma was born the first. Him, neither Gods nor Fathers [Pitris]
nor Men have equalled.

The _Atharva Veda_ identifies him with Agni, but makes him superior to that God. The _Taittirîya Brâhmana_ makes him allegorically the son of Dharma (moral religious duty, piety and justice) and of Shraddhâ (faith). Elsewhere Kâma is born from the heart of Brahmâ; therefore he is Âtmabhû “Self‐Existent,” and Aja, the “Unborn.” His sending Pramlochâ has a deep philosophical meaning; sent by Indra—the narrative has none. As Erôs was connected in early Greek mythology with the world’s creation, and only afterwards became the sexual Cupid, so was Kâma in his original Vedic character; the _Harivamsha_ making him a son of Lakshmî, who is Venus. The allegory, as said, shows the psychic element developing the physiological, before the birth of Daksha—_the progenitor of real physical men_—who is made to be born from Mârishâ and before whose time living beings and men were procreated “by the will, by sight, by touch, and by yoga,” as will be shown.

This, then, is the allegory on the mode of procreation of the Second or the “Sweat‐born.” The same for the Third Race in its final development.

Mârishâ, through the exertions of Soma, the Moon, is taken to wife by the Prachetases, the production of the “Mind‐born” sons of Brahmâ also,(404) from whom they beget the Patriarch Daksha—a son of Brahmâ also in a former Kalpa or life, explain and add the _Purânas_, in order to mislead, yet speaking the truth.

3. The early Third Race, then, is formed from drops of “Sweat,” which, after many a transformation, grow into human bodies. This is not more difficult to imagine or realize than the growth of the fœtus from an imperceptible germ, and its subsequent development into a child, and then into a strong, heavy man. But the Third Race changes yet again its mode of procreation according to the Commentaries. It is said to have emanated a _vis formativa_, which changed the drops of perspiration into greater drops, which grew, expanded, and became ovoid bodies—huge eggs. In these the human fœtus gestated for several years. In the _Purânas_, Mârishâ, the daughter of Kandu, the sage, becomes the wife of the Prachetases, and the mother of Daksha. Now Daksha is the father of the first _human‐like_ Progenitors, having been born in this way. He is mentioned later on. The evolution of man, the microcosm, is analogous to that of the universe, the macrocosm. His evolution stands between that of the latter and that of the animal, for which man, in his turn, is a macrocosm.

Then the Third Race becomes:

4. The Androgyne, or Hermaphrodite. This process of men‐bearing explains, perhaps, why Aristophanes, in Plato’s _Banquet_, describes the nature of the old race as “androgynous,” the form of every individual being rounded, “having the back and sides as _in a circle_,” whose “manner of running was circular ... terrible in force and strength and with prodigious ambition.” Therefore, to make them weaker, “Zeus divided them [in the Third Root‐ Race] into two, and Apollo [the Sun], under his direction, closed up the skin.”

The Madagascans—the island belonged to Lemuria—have a tradition about the first man. He lived at first without eating, and, having indulged in food, a swelling appeared in his leg; this bursting, there emerged from it a female, who became the mother of their race. Truly, “we have our sciences of Heterogenesis and Parthenogenesis, showing that the field is yet open.... The polyps ... produce their offspring from themselves, like the buds and ramifications of a tree....” Why not the primitive _human_ polyp? The very interesting polyp Stauridium passes alternately from gemmation into the sex method of reproduction. Curiously enough, though it grows merely as a polyp on a stalk, it produces gemmules, which ultimately develop into a sea‐nettle or Medusa. The Medusa is utterly dissimilar to its parent‐organism, the Stauridium. It also reproduces itself differently, by sexual method, and from the resulting eggs Stauridia once more put in an appearance. This striking fact may assist many to understand that a form may be evolved—as in the _sexual_ Lemurians from _hermaphrodite_ parentage—quite unlike its immediate progenitors. It is, moreover, unquestionable that in the case of _human_ incarnations the law of Karma, racial or individual, overrides the subordinate tendencies of Heredity, its servant.

The meaning of the last sentence in the above‐quoted Commentary on Shloka 27, namely, that the Fourth Race were the children of Padmapâni, may find its explanation in a certain letter from the Inspirer of _Esoteric Buddhism_:

_The majority of mankind belongs to the seventh sub‐race of the Fourth Root‐Race—the above‐mentioned Chinamen and their off‐shoots and branchlets (Malayans, Mongolians, Tibetans, Hungarians, Finns, and even the Esquimaux are all remnants of this last offshoot)._

Padmapâni or Avalokiteshvara, in Sanskrit, is, in Tibetan, Chenresi. Now, Avalokiteshvara is the great Logos in its higher aspect and in the divine regions. But in the manifested planes, he is, like Daksha, the Progenitor (in a spiritual sense) of men. Padmapâni‐Avalokiteshvara is called _esoterically_ Bodhisattva (or Dhyân Chohan) Chenresi Vanchug, “the powerful and all‐seeing.” He is considered now as the greatest protector of Asia in general, and of Tibet in particular. In order to guide the Tibetans and Lamas in holiness, and preserve the great Arhats in the world, this heavenly Being is credited with manifesting himself from age to age in human form. A popular legend has it that whenever faith begins to die out in the world, Padmapâni Chenresi, the “Lotus‐bearer,” emits a brilliant ray of light, and forthwith incarnates himself in one of the two great Lamas—the Dalai and Teschu Lamas; finally, it is believed that he will incarnate as the “most perfect Buddha” in Tibet, instead of in India, where his predecessors, the great Rishis and Manus had appeared in the beginning of our Race, but now appear no longer. Even the exoteric appearance of Dhyâni Chenresi is suggestive of the Esoteric Teaching. He is evidently, like Daksha, the synthesis of all the preceding Races and the progenitor of all the _human_ Races after the Third—the first complete one—and thus is represented as the _culmination_ of the _four_ Primeval Races in his _eleven‐faced_ form. This is a column built in four rows, each series having three faces or heads of different complexions; the three faces for each Race being typical of its three fundamental physiological transformations. The first is white (moon‐coloured); the second is yellow; the third, red‐brown; the fourth, in which are only two faces—the third face being left a blank; a reference to the untimely end of the Atlanteans—is brown‐black. Padmapâni (Daksha) is seated on the column, and forms the apex. In this reference compare Shloka 39. The Dhyân Chohan is represented with four arms, another allusion to the four Races. For while two are folded, the third hand holds a lotus—Padmapâni, the “Lotus‐bearer”; the flower symbolizing generation—and the fourth holds a serpent, emblem of the Wisdom in his power. On his neck is a rosary, and on his head the sign of water [Symbol: two horizontal rows of wave‐like symbols]—matter, deluge—while on his brow rests the third eye, Shiva’s eye, that of spiritual insight. His name is “Protector” (of Tibet), “Saviour of Humanity.” On other occasions when he has only two arms, he is Chenresi the Dhyânî, and Bodhisattva, Chakna Padma Karpo, “he who holds a white lotus.” His other name is Chantong, “he of the thousand eyes,” when he is endowed with a thousand arms and hands, on the palm of each of which is represented an eye of Wisdom, these arms radiating from his body like a forest of rays. Another of his names in Sanskrit is Lokapati or Lokanâtha, “Lord of the World”; and in Tibetan Jigten Gonpo, “Protector and Saviour” against evil of any kind.(405)