Showing posts with label blavatsky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blavatsky. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 April 2016

The Secret Doctrine

When I lived in Windsor there used to be a set of The Secret Doctrine. It is ofcourse a great all-time classic...  RS
 
 
 
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For the Morgana Lefay album, see The Secret Doctrine (album).
The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and philosophy
TheSecretDoctrine.jpg
First edition
AuthorHelena Blavatsky
Published1888
Part of a series on
Theosophy
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Theosophy
The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy, a book originally published as two volumes in 1888, is Helena Blavatsky's magnum opus. The first volume is named Cosmogenesis, the second Anthropogenesis. It was an influential example of the revival of interest in esoteric and occult ideas in the modern age, in particular because of its claim to reconcile ancient eastern wisdom with modern science.
Blavatsky claimed that its contents had been revealed to her by 'mahatmas' who had retained knowledge of humanity's spiritual history, knowledge that it was now possible, in part, to reveal.[not verified in body]


Volume one (Cosmogenesis)[edit]

The first part of the book explains the origin and evolution of the universe itself, in terms derived from the Hindu concept of cyclical development. The world and everything in it is said to alternate between periods of activity (manvantaras) and periods of passivity (pralayas). Each manvantara lasts many millions of years and consists of a number of Yugas, in accordance with Hindu cosmology.
Blavatsky attempted to demonstrate that the discoveries of "materialist" science had been anticipated in the writings of ancient sages and that materialism would be proven wrong.

Cosmic evolution: Items of cosmogony[edit]

In this recapitulation of The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky gave a summary of the central points of her system of cosmogony.[1] These central points are as follows:
  1. The first item reiterates Blavatsky's position that The Secret Doctrine represents the "accumulated Wisdom of the Ages", a system of thought that "is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity."
  2. The second item reiterates the first fundamental proposition (see above), calling the one principle "the fundamental law in that system [of cosmogony]". Here Blavatsky says of this principle that it is "the One homogeneous divine Substance-Principle, the one radical cause. … It is called "Substance-Principle," for it becomes "substance" on the plane of the manifested Universe, an illusion, while it remains a "principle" in the beginningless and endless abstract, visible and invisible Space. It is the omnipresent Reality: impersonal, because it contains all and everything. Its impersonality is the fundamental conception of the System. It is latent in every atom in the Universe, and is the Universe itself."
  3. The third item reiterates the second fundamental proposition (see above), impressing once again that "The Universe is the periodical manifestation of this unknown Absolute Essence.", while also touching upon the complex Sanskrit ideas of Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti. This item presents the idea that the One unconditioned and absolute principle is covered over by its veil, Mulaprakriti, that the spiritual essence is forever covered by the material essence.
  4. The fourth item is the common eastern idea of Maya. Blavatsky states that the entire universe is called illusion because everything in it is temporary, i.e. has a beginning and an end, and is therefore unreal in comparison to the eternal changelessness of the One Principle.
  5. The fifth item reiterates the third fundamental proposition (see above), stating that everything in the universe is conscious, in its own way and on its own plane of perception. Because of this, the Occult Philosophy states that there are no unconscious or blind laws of Nature, that all is governed by consciousness and consciousnesses.
  6. The sixth item gives a core idea of theosophical philosophy, that "as above, so below". This is known as the "law of correspondences", its basic premise being that everything in the universe is worked and manifested from within outwards, or from the higher to the lower, and that thus the lower, the microcosm, is the copy of the higher, the macrocosm. Just as a human being experiences every action as preceded by an internal impulse of thought, emotion or will, so too the manifested universe is preceded by impulses from divine thought, feeling and will. This item gives rise to the notion of an "almost endless series of hierarchies of sentient beings", which itself becomes a central idea of many theosophists. The law of correspondences also becomes central to the methodology of many theosophists, as they look for analogous correspondence between various aspects of reality, for instance: the correspondence between the seasons of Earth and the process of a single human life, through birth, growth, adulthood and then decline and death.

Volume two (Anthropogenesis)[edit]

The second half of the book describes the origins of humanity through an account of "Root Races" said to date back millions of years. The first root race was, according to her, "ethereal"; the second root had more physical bodies and lived in Hyperborea. The third root race, the first to be truly human, is said to have existed on the lost continent of Lemuria and the fourth root race is said to have developed in Atlantis.
According to Blavatsky, the fifth root race is approximately one million years old, overlapping the fourth root race and the very first beginnings of the fifth root race were approximately in the middle of the fourth root race.[citation needed]
"The real line of evolution differs from the Darwinian, and the two systems are irreconcilable," according to Blavatsky, "except when the latter is divorced from the dogma of 'Natural Selection'." She explained that, "by 'Man' the divine Monad is meant, and not the thinking Entity, much less his physical body." "Occultism rejects the idea that Nature developed man from the ape, or even from an ancestor common to both, but traces, on the contrary, some of the most anthropoid species to the Third Race man." In other words, "the 'ancestor' of the present anthropoid animal, the ape, is the direct production of the yet mindless Man, who desecrated his human dignity by putting himself physically on the level of an animal."[2]

Volumes three and four[edit]

Blavatsky wanted to publish a third and fourth volume of The Secret Doctrine. After Blavatsky's death, a controversial third volume of The Secret Doctrine was published by Annie Besant.[citation needed]

Three fundamental propositions[edit]

Blavatsky explained the essential component ideas of her cosmogony in her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine. She began with three fundamental propositions, of which she said:
Before the reader proceeds … it is absolutely necessary that he should be made acquainted with the few fundamental conceptions which underlie and pervade the entire system of thought to which his attention is invited. These basic ideas are few in number, and on their clear apprehension depends the understanding of all that follows…[3]
The first proposition is that there is one underlying, unconditioned, indivisible Truth, variously called "the Absolute", "the Unknown Root", "the One Reality", etc. It is causeless and timeless, and therefore unknowable and non-describable: "It is 'Be-ness' rather than Being".[a] However, transient states of matter and consciousness are manifested in IT, in an unfolding gradation from the subtlest to the densest, the final of which is physical plane.[4] According to this view, manifest existence is a "change of condition"[b] and therefore neither the result of creation nor a random event.
Everything in the universe is informed by the potentialities present in the "Unknown Root," and manifest with different degrees of Life (or energy), Consciousness, and Matter.[c]
The second proposition is "the absolute universality of that law of periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb and flow". Accordingly, manifest existence is an eternally re-occurring event on a "boundless plane": "'the playground of numberless Universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing,'"[7] each one "standing in the relation of an effect as regards its predecessor, and being a cause as regards its successor",[8] doing so over vast but finite periods of time.[d]
Related to the above is the third proposition: "The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul... and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul—a spark of the former—through the Cycle of Incarnation (or 'Necessity') in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term." The individual souls are seen as units of consciousness (Monads) that are intrinsic parts of a universal oversoul, just as different sparks are parts of a fire. These Monads undergo a process of evolution where consciousness unfolds and matter develops. This evolution is not random, but informed by intelligence and with a purpose. Evolution follows distinct paths in accord with certain immutable laws, aspects of which are perceivable on the physical level. One such law is the law of periodicity and cyclicity; another is the law of karma or cause and effect.[10]

Theories on human evolution and race[edit]

In the second volume of The Secret Doctrine, dedicated to anthropogenesis, Blavatsky presents a theory of the gradual evolution of physical humanity over a timespan of millions of years. The steps in this evolution are called rootraces, seven in all. Earlier rootraces exhibited completely different characteristics: physical bodies first appearing in the second rootrace and sexual characteristics in the third.
Some detractors have emphasized passages and footnotes that claim some peoples to be less fully human or spiritual than the "Aryans". For example,
"Mankind is obviously divided into god-informed men and lower human creatures. The intellectual difference between the Aryan and other civilized nations and such savages as the South Sea Islanders, is inexplicable on any other grounds. No amount of culture, nor generations of training amid civilization, could raise such human specimens as the Bushmen, the Veddhas of Ceylon, and some African Tribes, to the same intellectual level as the Aryans, the Semites, and the Turanians so called. The 'sacred spark' is missing in them and it is they who are the only inferior races on the globe, now happily – owing to the wise adjustment of nature which ever works in that direction – fast dying out. Verily mankind is 'of one blood,' but not of the same essence. We are the hot-house, artificially quickened plants in nature, having in us a spark, which in them is latent" (The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, p 421).
When discussing "sterility between two human races" as observed by Darwin, Blavatsky notes:
"Of such semi-animal creatures, the sole remnants known to Ethnology were the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians and a mountain tribe in China, the men and women of which are entirely covered with hair. They were the last descendants in a direct line of the semi-animal latter-day Lemurians referred to. There are, however, considerable numbers of the mixed Lemuro-Atlantean peoples produced by various crossings with such semi-human stocks – e.g., the wild men of Borneo, the Veddhas of Ceylon, classed by Prof. Flower among Aryans (!), most of the remaining Australians, Bushmen, Negritos, Andaman Islanders, etc" (The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, pp 195–6).
Blavatsky also asserts that "the occult doctrine admits of no such divisions as the Aryan and the Semite, accepting even the Turanian with ample reservations. Semites, especially the Arabs, are later Aryans – degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality" (The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, p 200). She also connects physical race with spiritual attributes constantly throughout her works:
"Esoteric history teaches that idols and their worship died out with the Fourth Race, until the survivors of the hybrid races of the latter (Chinamen, African negroes, &c.) gradually brought the worship back. The Vedas countenance no idols; all the modern Hindu writings do" (The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, p 723).
According to Blavatsky, "The MONADS of the lowest specimens of humanity (the "narrow-brained" 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 Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, p 168).
She also prophesies of the destruction of the racial "failures of nature" as the "higher race" ascends:
"Thus will mankind, race after race, perform its appointed cycle-pilgrimage. Climates will, and have already begun, to change, each tropical year after the other dropping one sub-race, but only to beget another higher race on the ascending cycle; while a series of other less favoured groups – the failures of nature – will, like some individual men, vanish from the human family without even leaving a trace behind" (The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, p 446).
In The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky states: "Verily mankind is 'of one blood,' but not of the same essence." Yet, she also said: "True, again, that if the characteristics are accepted literally". (The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1, p. 255).

Study of the Secret Doctrine[edit]

According to PGB Bowen, Blavatsky gave the following instructions regarding the study of the Secret Doctrine:
Reading the SD page by page as one reads any other book (she says) will only end us in confusion. The first thing to do, even if it takes years, is to get some grasp of the 'Three Fundamental Principles' given in the Proem. Follow that up by study of the Recapitulation – the numbered items in the Summing Up to Vol. I (Part 1.) Then take the Preliminary Notes (Vol. II) and the Conclusion (Vol. II)[11]

Writings about "The Secret Doctrine"[edit]

  • Alice Bailey: "But those of us who really studied it and arrived at some understanding of its inner significance have a basic appreciation of the truth that no other book seems to supply. HPB said that the next interpretation of the Ageless Wisdom would be a psychological approach, and A Treatise on Cosmic Fire , which I published in 1925, is the psychological key to The Secret Doctrine. None of my books would have been possible had I not at one time made a very close study of The Secret Doctrine."[12]
  • Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine by Max Heindel (1933; from Max Heindel writings & with introduction by Manly Palmer Hall): "The Secret doctrine  is one of the most remarkable books in the world... Behind her [H.P.B.] stood the real teachers, the guardians of the Secret Wisdom of the ages, who taught her all the occult lore which she transmitted in her writings."[full citation needed]

Critical reception[edit]

Historian Ronald H. Fritze has written that The Secret Doctrine presents a "series of far-fetched ideas unsupported by any reliable historical or scientific research."[13] According to Fritze:
Unfortunately the factual basis for Blavatsky's book is nonexistent. She claimed to have received her information during trances in which the Masters of Mahatmas of Tibet communicated with her and allowed her to read from the ancient Book of Dzyan. The Book of Dzyan was supposedly composed in Atlantis using the lost language of Senzar but the difficulty is that no scholar of ancient languages in the 1880s or since has encountered the slightest passing reference to the Book of Dzyan or the Senzar language.[13]
Scholars and skeptics have criticized The Secret Doctrine for plagiarism.[14] It is said to have been heavily influenced by occult and oriental works.[15][16]
L. Sprague de Camp in his book Lost Continents has written that Blavatsky's main sources were "H. H. Wilson's translation of the ancient Indian Vishnu Purana; Alexander Winchell's World Life; or, Comparative Geology; Donnelly's Atlantis; and other contemporary scientific, pseudo-scientific, and occult works, plagiarized without credit and used in a blundering manner that showed but skin-deep acquaintance with the subjects under discussion."[17] Camp described the book as a "mass of plagiarism and fakery."[18]
The book has also been accused of antisemitism and criticized for its emphasis on race. Historian Hannah Newman has noted that the book "denigrates the Jewish faith as harmful to human spirituality".[19] Historian Michael Marrus has written that Blavatsky's racial ideas "could be easily misused" and that her book had helped to foster antisemitism in Germany during World War II.[20]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Jump up ^ "An Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable PRINCIPLE on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude."[3]
  2. Jump up ^ "The expansion 'from within without'..., does not allude to an expansion from a small centre or focus, but, without reference to size or limitation or area, means the development of limitless subjectivity into as limitless objectivity. ...It implies that this expansion, not being an increase in size—for infinite extension admits of no enlargement—was a change of condition." Manifest existence is often called "Illusion" in Theosophy, owing to its conceptual and actual differentiation from the only Reality.[5]
  3. Jump up ^ "Everything in the Universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is CONSCIOUS: i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind and on its own plane of perception. We men must remember that because we do not perceive any signs—which we can recognise—of consciousness, say, in stones, we have no right to say that no consciousness exists there. There is no such thing as either 'dead' or 'blind' matter, as there is no 'Blind' or 'Unconscious' Law".[6]
  4. Jump up ^ Blavatsky states that each complete cycle lasts 311,040,000,000,000 years.[9]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888a, pp. 272–274.
  2. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888b, pp. 185–187.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Blavatsky 1888a, p. 14.
  4. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888a, pp. 35–85.
  5. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888a, pp. 62–63.
  6. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888a, p. 274.
  7. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888a, p. 17.
  8. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888a, p. 43.
  9. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888a, p. 206.
  10. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888a, pp. 274–275.
  11. Jump up ^ Bowen 1988.
  12. Jump up ^ Bailey, Alice A., "Chapter VI", The Unfinished Autobiography, Lucis Trust 
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b Fritze, Ronald H. (2009). Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions. Reaktion Books. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-1-86189-430-4
  14. Jump up ^ Floyd, E. Randall. (2005). The Good, the Bad and the Mad: Some Weird People in American History. Fall River Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0760766002 "Scholars and critics were quick to claim that much of the work was stolen from books by other occultists and crank scholars like Ignatius Loyola Donnelly's book on Atlantis."
  15. Jump up ^ Cohen, Daniel. (1989). Encyclopedia of the Strange. Marboro Books. p. 108. ISBN 978-0380702688 "When the book was finally published, critics snickered, Oriental scholars were outraged, and other scholars pointed out that the work was largely stolen from books by other occultists and crank scholars like Ignatius Donnelly's book on Atlantis."
  16. Jump up ^ Sedgwick, Mark. (2004). Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press. p. 44. ISBN 0-19-515297-2 "The Secret Doctrine drew heavily on John Dowson's Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Horace Wilson's annotated translation of the Vishnu Purana, and other such works."
  17. Jump up ^ L. Sprague de Camp. (1970). Lost Continents. Dover Publications. p. 57. ISBN 0-486-22668-9 "The Secret Doctrine, alas, is neither so ancient, so erudite, nor so authentic as it pretends to be. When it appeared, an elderly Californian scholar named William Emmette Coleman, outraged by Mme. Blavatsky's false pretensions to oriental learning, made an exegesis of her works. He showed that her main sources were H. H. Wilson's translation of the ancient Indian Vishnu Purana; Alexander Winchell's World Life; or, Comparative Geology; Donnelly's Atlantis; and other contemporary scientific, pseudo-scientific, and occult works, plagiarized without credit and used in a blundering manner that showed but skin-deep acquaintance with the subjects under discussion."
  18. Jump up ^ L. Sprague de Camp. The Fringe of the Unknown. Prometheus Books. p. 193. ISBN 0-87975-217-3 "Three years later, she published her chef d'oeuvre, The Secret Doctrine, in which her credo took permanent, if wildly confused, shape. This work, in six volumes, is a mass of plagiarism and fakery, based upon contemporary scientific, pseudoscientific, mythological, and occult works, cribbed without credit and used in a blundering way that showed only skin-deep acquaintance with the subjects discussed."
  19. Jump up ^ Newman, Hannah. Blavatsky, Helena P. (1831-1891) . In Richard S. Levy. (2005). Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution. ABC-CLIO. p. 73. ISBN 1-85109-439-3
  20. Jump up ^ Marrus, Michael. (1989). The Origins of the Holocaust. Meckler. pp. 85–87. ISBN 0-88736-253-2 "In her esoteric work, especially The Secret Doctrine, originally published in 1888, Blavatsky emphasized the concept of races as paramount in the development of human history... Blavatsky herself did not identify the Aryan race with the Germanic peoples. And although her racial doctrine clearly entailed belief in superior and inferior races and hence could be easily misused, she placed no emphasis on the domination of one race over another... Nevertheless, in her work Blavatsky had helped to foster antisemitism, which is perhaps one the reasons her esoteric work was so rapidly accepted in Germanic circles."

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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Monday, 8 June 2015

Root Races

sources. (January 2012)
Part of a series on
Theosophy
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Theosophy
Root races are stages in human evolution in the esoteric cosmology of theosophist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, as described in her book The Secret Doctrine (1888). These races existed mainly on now-lost continents. Blavatsky's model was developed by later theosophists, most notably William Scott-Elliot in The Story of Atlantis (1896) and The Lost Lemuria (1904). Annie Besant further developed the model in Man: Whence, How and Whither (1913). Both Besant and Scott-Elliot relied on information from Charles Webster Leadbeater obtained by "astral clairvoyance". Further elaboration was provided by Rudolf Steiner in Atlantis and Lemuria (1904).[1] Rudolf Steiner, and subsequent theosophist authors, have called the time periods associated with these races, Epochs (Steiner felt that the term "race" was not adequate anymore for modern humanity).


Source[edit]

According to historian James Webb, the occult concept of succeeding prehistoric races, as later adopted by Blavatsky, was first introduced by the French author Antoine Fabre d'Olivet in his Histoire philosophique du genre humain (1824).[2] By contrast, historian Goffe Jensma claims that the concept of root races was first articulated in the Dutch esotericist book Oera Linda, which was translated into English by William Sandbach in 1876.[3] Also prior to Blavatsky, the root races were described by the English theosophist Alfred Percy Sinnett in Esoteric Buddhism (1883).

Locations of the proposed former continents[edit]

Some post-theosophical writers, attempting to reconcile current geological science with some earlier theosophical teachings, have equated Lemuria with the former supercontinent of Gondwana: but this is not theosophy. Early theosophical teachings agree with the original statements of Eduard Suess, who argued that Gondwanaland consisted of parts of the present continents in their present positions, but joined to one another by other lands that have since been submerged. This is also the position of Master Samael Aun Weor.
Atlantis, in the Theosophical cosmology, was a continent that covered a significant part of what is now the Atlantic Ocean.[4] The large continent of Atlantis is said to have "first divided, and then broken later on into seven peninsulas and islands". When the main part of Atlantis began to sink, Atlantean settlers migrated to the new lands which were rising to the east, west, and south. These new lands became the Americas, Africa, parts of Asia, and the present European countries, stretching from the Ural Mountains of Russia, westward to include the islands of Ireland and Britain, and even farther westward than that in former times. Some emigrants from the remaining islands in the Atlantic settled on new islands to the east which later consolidated into what is now the district of the Abyssinian highlands and lands somewhat to the north. Atlantis perished through flooding and submergence in 9,564 BC,[5] and its destruction is explained by claiming successive disturbances in the axial rotation of Earth which caused earthquakes which led to the sudden sinking of Atlantis.

Root races, epochs and sub-races[edit]

According to Blavatsky's writings, there will be seven root races assembled for our Earth; each root race is divided into seven subraces. Only five root races have appeared so far;[6] the sixth is expected to emerge in the 28th century. Samael Aun Weor writes that the sixth root race is named Koradhi; Francis Bacon (whom theosophy considers to be the legendary Count of St. Germain) in his work The New Atlantis (1627) describes a potential future civilisation which lives on a land called Bensalem.

The first root race[edit]

The first root race was "ethereal", i.e. they were composed of etheric matter. They reproduced by dividing like an amoeba. Earth was still cooling at that time. The first mountain to arise out of the stormy primeval ocean was Mount Meru.[7]

The second root race (Hyperborean)[edit]

The second root race lived in Hyperborea. The second root race was colored golden yellow. Hyperborea included what is now Northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Northern Asia and Kamchatka. The climate was tropical because Earth had not yet developed an axial tilt. The esoteric name of their continent is Plaksha;[8] they called themselves the Kimpurshas. They reproduced by budding.[9] The second root race has no present-day descendents.

The third root race (Lemurian)[edit]

Map of Lemuria superimposed over the modern continents from William Scott-Elliot, The Story of Atlantis and Lost Lemuria.
The third root race, the Lemurian, was black and lived in Lemuria. The esoteric name of Lemuria is Shalmali.[8] Lemuria, according to Theosophists, existed in a large part of what is now the Indian Ocean including Australia and extending into the South Pacific Ocean; its last remnants are the Australian continent, the island of New Guinea, and the island of Madagascar. Lemuria sank gradually and was eventually destroyed by incessantly erupting volcanoes.[10] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was thought by geologists that the age of the earth was only about 200 million years (because radioactive dating had not yet come into use), so the geological epochs were believed to have occurred at a much later time than is thought to be the case today. According to traditional Theosophy, the Lemurian root race began 34½ million years ago, in the middle of what was then believed to be the Jurassic; thus, the people of Lemuria coexisted with the dinosaurs. The Lemurian race was much taller and bigger than our current race.[6] The first three subraces of the Lemurians reproduced by laying eggs, but the fourth subrace, beginning 16½ million years ago, began to reproduce like modern humans.[10] As Lemuria was slowly submerged due to volcanic eruptions, the Lemurians colonized the areas surrounding Lemuria, i.e. Africa, Southern India and the East Indies. The descendants of the Lemurian root race according to traditional Theosophy include the Capoid race, the Congoid race, the Dravidians, and the Australoid race.

The fourth root race (Atlantean)[edit]

This race inhabited Atlantis.

Subraces of the Atlantean root race[edit]

The fourth root race, the Atlantean, according to Theosophy arose approximately 4,500,000 years ago in Africa from the fourth subrace of the Lemurians in a part of Africa that had been colonized by that subrace in the area now inhabited by the Ashanti.[11] Theosophists believe the Atlantean root race was physically progenerated by the Chankshusha Manu. After they arose in Africa, they left Africa and colonized the continent of Atlantis. The esoteric name of Atlantis is Kusha.[8] The Atlantean root race had Mongolian features; they began with bronze skin and gradually evolved into the red American Indian, brown Malayan, and yellow Mongolian races, because some Atlanteans eventually migrated to the Americas and Asia. The seven subraces of the Atlantean root race were
  1. the Rmoahal
  2. the Tlavati (Cro-Magnons)
  3. the Toltec (a term which Theosophists use as a synonym for American Indians)
  4. the Turanian
  5. the (original) Semites (e.g., the Phoenicians)
  6. the Akkadians, and
  7. the Mongolian, which migrated to and colonized East Asia.
The descendants of the Atlanteans according to traditional Theosophy include those of the Mongolian race, the Malayan race, and the American Indian race as well as some people of what in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was called the "olive-skinned" Mediterranean race.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

The civilization of Atlantis[edit]


Main article: Atlantis
During the long period of time when Atlantis was ruled by the Toltecs (the ancestors of the Amerindians), the civilization of Atlantis was at its height. This was the period between about 1,000,000 and 900,000 years ago, called the Golden Age of Atlantis. The Atlanteans had many luxuries and conveniences. Their capital city was called The City of the Golden Gates. At its height, it had two million inhabitants. There were extensive aqueducts leading to the city from a mountain lake. The Atlanteans had airships powered by the vril that could seat two to eight people. The economic system was socialist like that of the Incas. Atlanteans were the first to develop organized warfare. The military deployed vril-powered air battleships that contained 50 to 100 fighting men. These air battleships deployed poison gas bombs. The infantry fired fire-tipped arrows. The Toltecs on Atlantis worshipped the Sun in temples as grand as those of ancient Egypt that were decorated in bright colors. The sacred word used in meditation was Tau (this was the equivalent of the Aryan sacred word Om). As noted above, the Toltecs colonized all of North America and South America and thus became the people we know as the Amerindians.[13][14] The downfall of Atlantis started when some of the Toltecs began to practice black magic about 850,000 BC, corrupted by the dragon "Thevetat",[22] remembered as Devadatta, the opponent of Buddha.[23] The people began to become selfish and materialistic. Soon thereafter, the Turanians (the ancestors of the people we now know as the Turkic peoples) became dominant in much of Atlantis. The Turanians continued the practice of black magic which reached its height about 250,000 BC and continued until the final sinking of Atlantis, although they were opposed by white magicians. The Master Morya incarnated as the Emperor of Atlantis in 220,000 BC to oppose the black magicians.[24] The black magicians used magical spells to breed human-animal chimeras to use as sex slaves. They also had an army composed of chimeras that were composites composed of a human body with the heads of fierce predators such as lions, tigers and bears, that ate enemy corpses on the battlefield.[24] The war between the white magicians and the black magicians continued until the end of Atlantis. The Masters of the Ancient Wisdom telepathically warned their disciples (the white magicians) to flee Atlantis in ships while there was still time to get out before the final cataclysm. As noted above, the final sudden submergence of Atlantis due to earthquakes occurred in 9,564 BC .[5]

The fifth root race (Aryan)[edit]

Early beginnings of the Aryan root race[edit]

Blavatsky asserted humanity was in the fifth root race, the Aryan race, which Theosophists believe to have emerged from the previous fourth root race (Atlantean root race) beginning about 100,000 years ago in Atlantis. (According to Powell, when Madame Blavatsky stated the Aryan root race was 1,000,000 years old, she meant that the souls of the people that later physically incarnated as the first Aryans about 100,000 years ago began to incarnate in the bodies of Atlanteans 1,000,000 years ago.[13] However, another way of interpreting this is that Nature began to create the Aryan race before the final cataclysms.) Theosophists believe the Aryan root race was physically progenerated by the Vaivasvatu Manu, one of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom. The present-day ethnic group most closely related to the new race is the Kabyle. The small band of only 9,000 people constituting the then small Aryan root race migrated out of Atlantis in 79,797 BC. The bards of the new white root-race poetically referred to the new race as being moon-colored.[25] A small group of these Aryan migrants from Atlantis split from the main body of migrants and went south to the shore of an inland sea in what was then a verdant and lush Sahara where they founded the "City of the Sun". The main body of migrants continued onwards to an island called the "white island" in the middle of what was then an inland sea in what is now the Gobi desert, where they established the "City of the Bridge".[21] (The "City of the Bridge" was constructed directly below the etheric city called Shamballa where Theosophists believe the governing deity of Earth, Sanat Kumara, dwells; thus, the ongoing evolution of the Aryan root race has been divinely guided by the being Theosophists call "The Lord of the World".)
The esoteric name of the whole of the present land surface of Earth, i.e. the World Island, the Americas, the Australian continent and Antarctica taken as a whole is Krauncha.[8]
Generally speaking, a large percentage of the people who live in the time of the period of the fifth root race are part of the fifth root race. However Blavatsky also opines that some Semitic peoples have become "degenerate in spirituality". She asserted that some peoples descended from the Lemurians are "semi-animal creatures". These latter include "the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians and a mountain tribe in China." There are also "considerable numbers of the mixed Lemuro-Atlantean peoples produced by various crossings with such semi-human stocks -- e.g., the wild men of Borneo, the Veddhas of Ceylon, most of the remaining Australians, Bushmen, Negritos, Andaman Islanders, etc."[26] All these aforementioned groups mentioned by Blavatsky except the purported "wild men of Borneo" (not to be confused with the famous circus duo, the Wild Men of Borneo) are part of what was in the late 19th and most of the 20th century was called the Australoid race (except for the Bushmen, part of the Capoid race), both of which races, as noted above, were believed by traditional Theosophists to have been descended from the Lemurians.

Subraces of the Aryan root race[edit]

Blavatsky described the fifth root race with the following words: "The Aryan races, for instance, now varying from dark brown, almost black, red-brown-yellow, down to the whitest creamy colour, are yet all of one and the same stock – the Fifth Root-Race – and spring from one single progenitor,[27] which Hindus call Manu. Theosophists believe that each root race has a separate and distinct progenitor.
The subraces of the Aryan Fifth Root Race include the first subrace, the Hindu, which migrated from the "City of the Bridge" on the white island in the middle of the Gobi inland sea to India in 60,000 BC; the second subrace, the Arabian, which migrated from the "City of the Bridge" to Arabia in 40,000 BC; the third subrace, the Persian, which migrated from the "City of the Bridge" to Persia in 30,000 BC; the fourth subrace, the Celts, which migrated from the "City of the Bridge" to Western Europe beginning in 20,000 BC (the Mycenaean Greeks are regarded as an offshoot of the Celtic subrace that colonized Southeast Europe); and the fifth subrace, the Teutonic, which also migrated from the "City of the Bridge" to what is now Germany beginning in 20,000 BC (the Slavs are regarded as an offshoot of the Teutonic subrace that colonized Russia and surrounding areas).[5][21][28][29][30][31][32]

The emergence of the sixth subrace of the Aryan root race[edit]

According to Blavatsky the sixth subrace of the Aryan root race will begin to evolve in the area of the United States in the early 21st century. This sixth subrace of the Aryan root race will be called the Australo-American subrace and is believed by Theosophists to be now arising from the Teutonic subrace of the Aryan root race in Australia and in the Western United States (many individuals of the new subrace will be born in California) and its surrounding nearby areas (i.e., the Australo-American subrace is in arising from the Anglo-American, Anglo-Canadian, Anglo-Australian and presumably also the Anglo-New Zealander ethnic groups).[33] The sixth or Australo-American sub-race will "possess certain psychic powers, and for this the pituitary body will be developed, thus giving an additional sense, that of cognising astral emotions in the ordinary waking consciousness. We may say that in general the sixth sub-race will bring in wisdom and intuition, blending all that is best in the intelligence of the fifth subrace and the emotion of the fourth."[33]
Some Theosophists believe that the root races evolve from the subraces of the same number; thus the sixth root race will evolve from the sixth sub-race of the fifth or Aryan root race, just as the fifth or Aryan root race evolved from the fifth subrace (the Semitic) of the fourth or Atlantean root race 100,000 years ago.[11]

The sixth root race[edit]

According to C. W. Leadbeater, a colony will be established in Baja California by the Theosophical Society under the guidance of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom in the 28th century for the intensive selective eugenic breeding of the sixth root race. The Master Morya will physically incarnate in order to be the Manu ("progenitor") of this new root race.[34] By that time, the world will be powered by nuclear power and there will be a single world government led by a person who will be the reincarnation of Julius Caesar.[34] Tens of thousands of years in the future, a new continent will arise in the Pacific Ocean that will be the future home of the sixth root race.[35] California west of the San Andreas Fault will break off from the mainland of North America and become the Island of California off the eastern coast of the new continent.[33]
Victor Skumin proposed a definition and classification of Homo spiritalis (Latin: "spiritual man"), the sixth root race,[36] consisting of eight sub-races (subspecies): HS0 Anabiosis spiritalis, HS1 Scientella spiritalis, HS2 Aurora spiritalis, HS3 Ascensus spiritalis, HS4 Vocatus spiritalis, HS5 Illuminatio spiritalis, НS6 Creatio spiritalis, and HS7 Servitus spiritalis.[37]

The seventh root race[edit]

The seventh root race will arise from the seventh subrace of the sixth root race on the future continent that the sixth root race will be living on that will arise from the Pacific Ocean.[35] The continent they will inhabit is esoterically called Pushkara.[8]

Migration to Mercury[edit]

It is believed by some Neo-Theosophists that after the present round of human spiritual evolution by reincarnation of souls in root races is completed several dozen million years from now, the human race will migrate to the planet Mercury to continue its spiritual and physical evolution.[35][38]

Theosophical belief in the brotherhood of humanity[edit]

Modern writers within theosophy or influenced by theosophy defend Blavatsky's use of the terms Aryan race and root race as "not connected to demagogic ideas".[citation needed] They say[who?] that the classification of humanity into races is still practiced today and that Blavatsky and subsequent esoteric philosophers who expressed similar lines of thought intended a Universal Brotherhood of humanity. Yet root race philosophy is not void of directly biologically racial elements.
Blavatsky promulgated her ideology in a layered, multidimensional style and way, and paradoxical truth was key to her metaphysics. Seemingly paradoxical statements underpin root race theoretic philosophy existing beyond bifurcations of "liberal" or "illiberal" notions. Blavatsky wrote that, while "all men have spiritually and physically the same origin" and that "mankind is essentially of one and the same essence"[39]—nevertheless, in The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky posits: "Verily mankind is 'of one blood,' but not of the same essence." The interrelationship between spirituality and root race developmental history is nonlinear and complex. Thus: "Esoteric history teaches that idols and their worship died out with the Fourth Race, until the survivors of the hybrid races of the latter (The Chinese, Africans, etc.,.) gradually brought the worship back." [40]
The first aim of the Theosophical Society she founded is "To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour", and her writings also include references emphasizing the unity of humanity: "all men have spiritually and physically the same origin" and that "mankind is essentially of one and the same essence".[41]
Cranston quoted Blavatsky saying that in reality there is no inferior or low-grade races because all of it are one common humankind.[42] A view which is also evident in the Secret Doctrine.[a]

Notes[edit]

  1. Jump up ^ "In this manner the reason for division of humankind into higher and lower races is obsolete and a erroneous belief."[43][not in citation given (See discussion.)]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up ^ Atlantis and Lemuria, The Submerged Continents of Atlantis and Lemuria, Cosmic Memory (Prehistory of Earth and Man), Aus der Akasha-Chronik. Rudolf Steiner (Written 1904; GA 11 / Bn 11)[2] English Edition, trans. Max Gysi[3]
  2. Jump up ^ James Webb, The Occult Underground, Open Court, La Salle 1974, p. 270
  3. Jump up ^ Jensma, Goffe (November 2007), "How to Deal with Holy Books in an Age of Emerging Science. The Oera Linda Book as a New Age Bible", Fabula 48 (3–4): 229–249
  4. Jump up ^ See L. Sprague de Camp, Lost Continents: The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and Literature, Dover Publications, 1970 for a scientific analysis of the concept of lost continents.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c Powell, The Solar System, p. 308-316. (Ch. 50. "The fourth Aryan sub-race: The Keltic, B.C. 20,000".)
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Трефилов 1994, p. 236.
  7. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 188-192. (Ch. 31. "The Earth: The first root-race.)
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Powell, The Solar System, p. 55-59. (Ch. 11. "Races and Sub-races".)
  9. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 193-196. (Ch. 32. "The Earth: The second root-race.)
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Powell, The Solar System, p. 193-215. (Ch. 33. "The Earth: The third root-race: Lemurian.)
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b c Powell, The Solar System, p. 219-224. Ch. 35. "The fourth (Atlantean) root-race: The Rmoahal".
  12. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 25-26. (Ch. 36. "The second Atlantean sub-race: the Tlavatli".)
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c Powell, The Solar System, p. 227-236. (Ch. 37. "The Third Atlantean Subrace: The Toltec".)
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Powell, The Solar System, p. 237-251. (Ch. 38. "The Civilization of Atlantis".)
  15. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 252-263. (Ch. 39. "Ancient Peru: A Toltec remnant".)
  16. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 264-265. (Ch. 40. "The fourth Atlantean sub-race: the Turanian".)
  17. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 266-276. (Ch. 41. "A Turanian : Chaldae, B.C. 19,000".)
  18. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 276-278. (Ch. 42. "The fifth Atlantean sub-race: the original Semites".)
  19. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 279-280. (Ch. 43. "The sixth Atlantean sub-race: the Akkadian".)
  20. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 281. (Ch. 44. "The seventh Atlantean sub-race: the Mongolian".)
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b c Powell, The Solar System, p. 282-286. (Ch. 45. "The Beginnings of the Fifth (Aryan) Root Race".)
  22. Jump up ^ Godwin, Joscelyn (2010). Atlantis and the Cycles of Time: Prophecies, Traditions, and Occult Revelations. Inner Traditions / Bear & Co. p. 68. ISBN 1594772622. 
  23. Jump up ^ George Robert Snow Mead, ed. (2007). Five Years of Theosophy. Echo Library. p. 181. ISBN 1406815284. 
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b Besant/Leadbeater, Man: How, Whence, and Whither?, p. 127-137. (Ch. 9 "Black Magic in Atlantis".)
  25. Jump up ^ Leadbeater, C.W. and Besant, Annie Main: Whence, How, and Whither? Wheaton, Illinois:1913 Theosophical Press Pages 249-254
  26. Jump up ^ Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. 2, p. 195f.
  27. Jump up ^ Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. 2, p. 249.
  28. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 287-289. (Ch. 46. "The City of the Bridge".)
  29. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 290-294. (Ch. 47. "The first Aryan sub-race: The Hindu, B.C. 60,000".)
  30. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 295-301. (Ch. 48. "The second Aryan sub-race: The Arabian, B.C. 40,000".)
  31. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 302-307. (Ch. 49. "The third Aryan sub-race: The Iranian, B.C. 30,000".)
  32. Jump up ^ Powell, The Solar System, p. 317-320. (Ch. 51. "The fourth Aryan sub-race: The Teutonic, B.C. 20,000".)
  33. ^ Jump up to: a b c Powell, The Solar System, p. 326-330. (Ch. 52 "The Aryan Sixth Sub-Race").
  34. ^ Jump up to: a b Besant/Leadbeater, Man: How, Whence, and Whither?, p. 353-495.
  35. ^ Jump up to: a b c Powell, The Solar System, p. 330-347. (Ch. 54. "The sixth and seventh root-races.)
  36. Jump up ^ Skumin, V. A. (1996). Человек духовный: роль культуры духовного здоровья в утверждении новой человеческой расы на планете [Spiritual Man: The role of the Culture of spiritual health for approval of the new human race on the planet] (in Russian). theeuropeanlibrary.org. ISBN 5-88167-012-4. Retrieved May 12, 2015. 
  37. Jump up ^ "Man (Russian: Человек)". wikisfera.net. Retrieved 27 December 2014. 
  38. Jump up ^ Planetary Schemes of Our Solar System According to Theosophy:
  39. Jump up ^ The Key to Theosophy, Section 3
  40. Jump up ^ Blavatsky, Helena, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, Page 294. Online edition
  41. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1962, Section 3.
  42. Jump up ^ Cranston 1995, p. 400.
  43. Jump up ^ Blavatsky 1888b, Stanza IX.

Literature[edit]


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