The
evolution of such a complex being as man is destined to
become does not take place on the earth alone, but is extended
through a chain of seven planets, each of which has a special
part to play in the development of humanity. It will readily
be supposed that the planets which form this chain are
not exactly similar in constitution; in reality, they
are very unlike each other, not merely in outward conditions,
but in that supreme characteristic, the proportion between
their spiritual and material characteristics. On the earth
the balance between these characteristics is even; the
other planets in the chain are more ethereal. In the solar
system there are six other planetary chains, not connected,
however, with the planetary system to which we belong.
Round the seven planets of the chain the individual entities
circle, and return again to the planet on which they began
their existence, not, however, to resume the condition
they left millions of years previously. On the second visit
to the first planet the entities have reached the second
stage, or round, of their existence. Esoteric philosophy
recognizes seven kingdoms of nature, each of which seems
to take seven rounds, or passages, around the planetary
chain for its complete development
The
three lowest kingdoms are called the elemental or astral
kingdoms; the fourth is the mineral kingdom; the fifth,
the vegetable; the sixth, animal; the seventh, man. To
the last we must confine our attention.
Man,
it appears, has to pass seven times round the complete
chain of seven planets; in other words, the complete evolution
of humanity requires seven rounds. We are in the fourth
round. The individual entity does not, however, only pay
a flying visit to each planet and then pass on to the next.
On each planet there are seven great races of humanity
which successively rise, flourish, and decline; that is,
there are seven culminations of development and civilization
on each planet in turn. Each of these seven great races
is further divided into seven branch races, and each branch
race into seven root races. In each of these root races
every individual entity, or monad, has to pass at least
two incarnations, or earth lives; so that there are about
800 incarnations for each individual on each planet in
turn. The majority of mankind now living belong to the
fifth great race — the brown-white section of mankind.
The Asiatic Aryans belong to the first branch race, while
we, the European Aryans, belong to [Page
16] the fifth
branch race of the fifth great race. The fourth great
race, whose pure descendants are found among the inland
Chinamen, inhabited a continent called, by Plato, Atlantis,
which is now submerged, but indications of which were discovered,
it is believed, by the soundings of the "Challenger". The
predecessors of the Greeks and Romans were Atlanteans.
The fourth great race is the red-yellow branch of mankind.
The third race inhabited a now submerged continent in
the Indian Ocean, which we may call Lemuria. Their degenerate
descendants are the flat-headed aborigines of Australia.
After
each incarnation of the individual comes a period in which
he is rewarded according to his deserts in an ethereal
world, his sojourn in which may last from 2,000 to 10,000
years, according to the quality of spiritual energy developed
by the higher nature of the individual. This ethereal world
has many phases; its extreme phases are called Devachan
and Avitchi; corresponding roughly to the ideas of heaven
and hell, but differing from these ideas in that they refer
to a state not to a locality. To Avitchi, however, go only
the aristocrats in crime, characters who may be compared
morally to Milton's Satan. The rest of mankind, the "sinners
rather commonplace", suffer for their sins in the
next incarnations; since, according to the law of "Karma" or
merit, each incarnation is the exact result, the sum total
of the attractions for good and evil, of the preceding
incarnations. This doctrine of Karma, the true meaning
of the saying "Whatsoever a man sows, the same shall
he also reap", and
the keystone of Aryan ethics is the point of contact between
esoteric philosophy and the life of every human being. The
life of each individual is the result of the actions of our
last incarnation, and our next incarnation will be the result
of our actions in the present life.
The
state of Devachan is a condition of spiritual refreshment,
the fruition of all the divine and spiritual aspirations
of the highest part of our nature. It has been described
as "a rosy sleep, with dreams more vivid than day,
and lasting for many centuries"; the individual
enjoyer of Devachan is not alone but is attended by the celestial
counterparts of his earthly friends, who remain with him,
as happy, blissful, and innocent as the disembodied himself.
Each man's Devachan or heaven is as joyful and enjoyable
as his highest faculties and aspirations can make it.
After
a brief period of unconsciousness, immediately succeeding
the separation of the soul from the body, there is a dawn
into the Devachan state, a full day of bliss lasting many
centuries, an evening of semi-consciousness, followed by
oblivion and renewed incarnation.
The
fourth principle, the body of Will and Desire, which is
the vehicle of the adept who chooses to leave his body
temporarily, is separated from the higher principles during
the unconscious period after death, and may sometimes be
seen floating about near the body, when it is taken for
the [Page
17] ghost of
the deceased person. Sometimes a personality is so gross
and sensual that it has no spiritual attractions to carry
it into the Devachan condition; the body of personal
wishes then separates from the higher principles, and becomes
dissipated.
The
personalities are like beads strung on the individuality
or true eternal self, which passes through all the incarnation
unchanged. In the case of the extinction of a personality,
the bead is broken off the individuality and destroyed.
In
the first round, or passage round the seven members of
the planetary chain, man is a relatively ethereal being,
compared with his present earthly condition, not intellectual
but semi-spiritual; spirituality in the Esoteric sense
being the capacity for direct or intuitive knowledge, as
opposed to physical reason or knowledge acquired by logical
processes. During the first round, man, like the vegetable
and animal shapes around him, inhabits an immense but loosely-organised
body. In the second round he is still gigantic and ethereal,
but growing firmer and more condensed in body, a more physical
man, but still less intellectual than intuitive. In the
third round he has developed a perfectly compact body,
at first the form rather of a giant ape than a true man,
but with intelligence coming more into the ascendant.
In
the fourth, the present round, he decreases in size, and
his intellect, now greatly developed, achieves enormous
progress. The races with which the fourth round begins
acquire human speech, as we understand it. In the fifth
round the personality is to be merged in the spiritual
soul, and this union ensures final salvation.
In
the sixth round humanity attains a hardly conceivable perfection
of body and mind, of soul and spirit. The most transcendental
enlightenment which the world has ever known or conceived
will form the common type of manhood. Those faculties which
now, in the rare efflorescence of a generation, enable
some extraordinarily-gifted persons to explore the mysteries
of nature and acquire the knowledge, a minute portion of
which is now being offered to the world, the faculties
of the highest adeptship, will be the common possession
of all. Mankind in the seventh round will be altogether
too god-like for mankind in the fourth round to forecast
its attributes. For the sixth and seventh rounds it is
absolutely necessary for man to possess the faculty of
direct spiritual perception — supreme intuition. In
other words, man, to continue his existence through the
higher rounds, must merge his personality in the higher
principles, which are the key to the spiritual planes.
By this union he comes to full remembrance of all his former
lives, this complete memory of the past being the Esoteric
meaning of resurrection.
Virtue
in any decided degree must finally engender the spiritual
attributes which the adept acquires in a comparatively
brief period, [Page
18] the adept
being comparable to a fifth round man; he has merged
himself in
his higher principles, and is assured of final salvation.
Those who fail to engender the necessary spirituality
have to do so in a future planetary period.
After
the last and most glorious of all incarnations, in the
end of the seventh round, those who have reached that state
pass into Nirvana, a sublime state of conscious rest in
omniscience, they become planetary spirits, the guardians
and guides of the next planetary period.
An
incarnation of planetary spirits takes place at the beginning
of each race, when the broad ideas of right and wrong are
impressed on the earliest members of that race, and the
germ of the Esoteric wisdom is instilled into a few chosen
souls, who become its custodians and transmitters to future
races. This is the mystery of the Divine Incarnation;
and it is the appearance of a Divine Being at the beginning
of a round which impresses indelibly on humanity the idea
of an anthropomorphic God, who incarnates to teach mankind
the way of righteousness, the path of salvation.
Such
is a brief sketch of a portion of the Esoteric doctrine
taught by the spiritual heirs of the pupils of the incarnated
planetary spirit.