THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 4 5 29 4 8 15

T LENOX AND AS OR, F OI' NDATIONS 1 0 43

PYR G T 1 9 BY H N N Y CO I H , 08, KAT ERI E TI GLE PREF ACE

HE remarks under this head are intended

to be introductory to each of the Manuals . are oi First, as to the spirit in which they t fe ed . These Manuals are not written in a i controversial spirit, nor as an addit on to the k stoc of theories awaiting public approval . The writers have no time to waste in arguing d with people who do not wish to be convince , or who ridicule everything which is new to e their limited outlook . Th ir message is for those who desire to know those who are seeking for something that will solve their difii lti cu es. doubts and remove their For such , all that is needed is a clear exposition of the Theosophical teachings ; for they will judge of the truth of a teaching by its power to an swer the questions they ask . People realize, much more now than in the early days of the S of Theosophical ociety, the value Theosophy ; iv PREF ACE

for the ever- increasing diflicultics engendered l h l by se fis ness and materia ism , by doubt and i c o f the mult pli ity theories, have created an i can s urgent demand wh ch it alone atisfy .

Again, it is necessary to state clearly and emphatically the genuine teachings of Theo S ophy, as given by the Founder of the Theo s k d S . . an ophical ociety, H P Blavats y, her s uccessors , William Q . Judge and Katherine

Tingley . For, as H . P . Blavatsky predicted , there are persons who have sought to pervert these teachings and turn them into a source of profit to themselves and their own selfish and ambitious schemes . The true teachings do not lend themselves to such purposes ; their f h ideals are o t e purest and most unselfish . Hence these persons have sought to promul gate under the name of Theosophy a perverted o f the Brotherli form teachings , from which ness and other pure motives are omitted , and Blavat which contains doctrines which H . P . maleficcnt i sky showed to be and destruct ve . As these pseudo- Theosophists have gained a certain amount of notoriety by using the names S of the Theosophical ociety and its Leaders , it is necessary to warn the public against them PREF ACE

ti a n s and their misrepresenta ons . Their te chi g i be to can eas ly shown , by comparison , be di f r o . . ectly contrary to those H P Blavatsky , o whom they nevertheless profess t follow . In

f - sacrifice stead o having for their basis self , self- purification and the elevation of the hu to man race, these teachings too often pander ambition , vanity and curiosity . In many cases they are altogether ridiculous , and only cal culated a to m ke people laugh . Nevertheless , as these travesties have served to discredit the name of Theosophy and to keep earnest in uirers the q away from the truth, it is well that public should know their nature and origin . They are the work of people who wereat one i t me members of the Theosophical Society, but who did not find in it that food for their own personalities of which they were really in o search . S they turned against their teachers i e in wounded pride and van ty, and started littl societies of their own with themselves at

the head. The writers of these Manuals have no per u sonal grievance against any s ch calumniators . Inspired by a profound love of the sublime o f it teachings , Theosophy, they have made vi PREF ACE their life- work to bring the benefits which they have thereby received within the reach o f as many people as possible . And they feel that they will have the hearty sympathy and co o peration o f the public in exposing folly and h bringing t etruth to light . Theosophy strikes unfamiliar ground in m odern civilization, because it does not come under any particular oneof thefamiliar head i f o S . t ngs Religion, cience, Philosophy, etc in o which our age has divided its speculative ac i i i s the t v t es. It date back to a period in history o f mankind when such distinctions did not ex but one G or n ist, there was nosis K owledge embracing all . Religion and Science, as we e a have th m tod y, are but imperfect growths springing from the remnants of that great

- i ancient system, the Wisdom Relig on, which included all that we now know as religion and

s and . cience , much more Hence Theosophy will not appeal to thesame motives as religion ff and science . It will not o er any cheap and easy salvation or put a premium upon mental e inactivity and spiritual selfishn ss . Neither can it accomodate itself to the rules laid down by various schools of modern thought as to PREF ACE vii

d not what constitutes proof an what does . o But it can and does appeal to the Reas n . The truth of doctrines such as Theosophy t maintains, can only be es imated by their ability to solve problems and by their harmony t to wi h other truths which we know be true. But in addition to this we have the testimony o f too c the ages, which has been long negle ted now e by modern scholarship, but which is b ing i revealed by archaeolog sts and scholars , as s in H . P . Blavatsky prophe ied that it would

this century . It may perhaps be as well also to remind of those who would criticise, that the state modern opinion is scarcely such as to warrant

anybody in assuming the attitude of a judge . e It would be quite pr per for a Theosophist, instead of answering questions or attempting

! t to give proofs , to demand hat his questioners c s and to should first state their own a e, be

himself the questioner . The result would cer . inl ta y show that Theosophy, to say the very on n least, stands an equal footing with ay is no other view , since there certain know x to d ledge, no satisfying e planation , be foun

anywhere . PREPACE

Since the days when the wave of material ism swept over the world , obliterating the traces of the ancient Wisdom- Religion and replacing it by theological dogrnatism our re ligions have had nothing to offer us in the way o f a philosophical explanation of the laws of

Being as revealed in Man and in Nature . Instead we have only had bare statements nd m a dog atic assertions . The higher nature o f man is represented by such vague words r i as Spi it and Soul , wh ch have little or no m for eaning the majority . The laws of the universe are briefly summed up under the ” t God of erm , and all further consideration ff a them shut o . Then came a reaction ag inst m ' the dogmatis of religion , and man pinned his faith to knowledge gained by study and se r reflection , limiting his re a ches however to the outer world as presented by the senses , and fearing to trench upon the ground which dogmatic theology had rendered the field of n so much co tention . The result of this has b een that neither in religions nor sciences , have we any teaching about the higher na ture of man or the deeper mysteries of the u niverse . This is a field which is left entirely PREF ACE ix

or of unexplored, is at best the subject ten i tat ve and unguided conjectures .

Until , therefore, religious teachers have satisfac something definite , consistent, and ff ca tory to o er, and until science n give us something better than mere confessions o f nescience or impudent denials with regard to everything beyond its own domain , Theosophy can afford to assume the role of questioner rather than that of questioned, and does not owe anybody any explanations whatever . It is sufii cient to state its tenets and let them vindicate themselves by their greater reason ableness ; and any further explanation that may be offered is ofi ered rather from good i will than from any obligat on . Theosophy undertakes to explain that which t i o her systems leave unexpla ned , and is , on i its own spec al ground , without a competitor . h It can issue a c allenge to theology, science , and other modern systems, to surpass it in giving a rational explanation of the facts of life .

Again , there are some questions which it is its beyond the reach of the human mind, in resent sta eo develo ment p g f p , to answer ; and PREF ACE it would scarcely be just to arraign Theo n t sophy for o answering these . Judgment should in all cases be preceded u by careful st dy. There are always those who will impatiently rush to questions which a further study would have rendered un necessary ; and it is safe to say that the “ ” majority of objections raised to Theosoph ical teachings are such as could have been e solved by the obj ctor himself, had he been a genuine student. In the ordinary courses r are of education , schola s required and are to oi ' content, accept provisionally many the ’ teacher s statements , in full confidence that further study will explain what in the begin ning cannot be made clear. In the same spirit an earnest student of Theosophy will be wise enough to hold many of his difficul i s ti t es in re erve, until, by further investiga on , he has gained better acquaintance with his h subject. In the case of those w o are not willing to adopt these wise and patient meth ods of study, it may be reasonably questioned whether they are the more anxious to learn or to disprove . Above all it is sought to make these Man

PREF ACE they claim to be the gospel of a new hope n f r a d salvation o humanity . These Booklets are not all the product of f a single pen , but are written by dif erent Students at the International Headquarters of the UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEO

S P H A O TY r r a. O IC L S CIE at Point Lo na, Califo ni Each writer has contributed his own quota to the series . F or further explanations on Theosophy en to g erally , the reader is referred the Book List published elsewhere in this volume and to of e the other Manuals this s ries, which treat of Theosophy and the various Theosophical teachings . CONTENTS

Introductory What is Man ? Cyclic Progress TheSpark and the Flame

The Latent Powe rs Awaken The First and Second Races

Incarnation of the Ego

r Lemuria , the C adle of Mankind The Third Eye Rise of Atlantis The Meridian of Races F all of Atlantis O rigin of Religions

Man and the Anthropoid Apes The Future of Humanity

INTRODUCTORY

HAT there has once been a Golden Age

is the universal tradition of mankind . This belief is oneof those larger factors in life which have either been neglected utterly or treated in themost prosaic manner as base less myths created by a fond imagination . But a new spirit of inquiry is spreading in the world and even some of the leading thinkers in science have become dissatisfied with the contempt hitherto shown for the antique tra al dition . The Theosophical Movement has ready had a large share in awakening a healthy skepticism in the infallibility o f the purely materialistic conception of theorigins of man a i kind, conception wh ch would limit the exist ence of rational man on earth to a few paltry o th usands of years , and which, neglecting the no existence of the soul, insists that man is t b more han a highly developed east , and not 2 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T a spark of Divinity striving upward through

s i peri hable and trans tory forms . The scientific writers on Folklore and Com parative M ythology declare that thei r pains taking accumulation of facts concerning the beliefs and customs of the savage and civi lized races of the past and present are only for the purpose of tracing and understand ing the workings of the human mind in its

' alleged march from the Stone Age to the r t Twentieth Centu y . They calmly assume tha

- the time honored legends of the past, and all the so- called superstitions of the past and the present are either baseless or are merely the fanciful renderings of the commonest natural phenomena , and that for anyone to imagine there is any real wisdom in them which we do not know is to reduce himself to a low level of culture . To the Folklorist the myths , of r etc . , are no impo tance except to the extent that they give material for building up his He commonplace theories . believes in no gods ; to his unpoetic mind Nature is soul less . INTROD UCTOR Y 3

s h f t Theosophy prove t e error o his . The Theosophist is very little interested in the con tortious of the savage mind in its efi orts to preserve the vestiges of truth in its posses sion ; he is employed in finding the truth be so to hind the forms , as to be better able i help human ty to progress on intelligent lines . Theosophy knows and is pointing out the pearls of truth hidden under the mass of rubbish that has grown up throughout the e ag s . A feeling has arisen in the hearts of thous ands that there is something vitally important in o f the traditions the ancients , and that they were not all deluded fools ; but the material istic interpretation of theBible that the ortho dox i theolog ans have forced upon the world,

i r with its l te al hell and its absurd chronology , “ ” its unjust plan of salvation and false science, still arouses prejudice not only against the veracity of the Biblical allegories but also against those o f the Sacred Scriptures of In

dia . , Chaldaea , etc It is not possible in the limited space at our SONS OF THE F IREM IS T disposal to give the full reasons why Theoso phists accept the assertions that there were vast prehistoric civilizations ages before the supposed Flood of Noah or the hypothetical Stone Age of archaeology ; it is sufficient to mention that H . P. Blavatsky brought the key to the strange and not always beautiful i Her narratives in the anc ent records . great TheSecret Doctrine wn work, , to quote her o words

A h W DOM sserts t at a system, known as the IS R G O the or of enerations of a e nd ELI I N, w k g d pts a

r h re h ir m f r - his ric times see s, t e sac d e loo o p e to i actually exists, though hitherto preserved n the greatest secrecy by the present Initiates ; and it points to various corroborations of its existence to i r i th s vey day, to be found in anc ent and modern or w ks. No new philosophy is set up in The ecr Doctrin S et e, only the hidden meaning of some r i of the eligious allegories of ant quity is given, in hr n n light be g t ow o these by the esoteric sciences, r i and the common sou ce s pointed out, whence all the world- religions and philosophies have sprung its doctrines and sciences which form an in tegral cycle of universal cosmic facts and meta n ru physical axioms a d t ths, represent a complete

6 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

Man has not been confined to his materially embodied state on the planet Earth from the o utset ; he has existed upon other planes of

being, more subtle than the terrestrial as we su ernat know it now, not in a supposed p u i m ral heaven , but under cond tions as nor al he in t ir cycle as the physical is today . Why should there be anything extraordinary in this

? ri idea If , as all but agnostics and mate al

ists i is i bel eve, it poss ble to exist after death , m inus the body , and in a condition absolutely

i i i r nv s ble to our five senses , why should the e be anything unreasonable in the Theosophical teaching that ages ago humanity gained needed experience in conditions far more ethereal than those prevailing in this corner of the u niverse now ? The earth was certainly far more gaseous in its natu re at one time ; why should we not have been formed then in har mony with the environment ? Theosophy teaches that in gaining the vast experiences already stored up in the memory o f ma a the soul , nkind has traveled m ny roads , d eveloping certain faculties during one cycle, INTROD UCTORY 7

i and others when that cycle had run ts course . The bald notion that man is merely a highly P rimate organized animal, a with a more com who plex brain , has descended in a straight line from some primeval amoeba through rep not r tile and mammal , does explain the myste y f i to o his nature . All honor must be g ven D a e arwin , Wallace , Huxley, and the indefatig bl school of evolutionists for breaking down the l a n G iteral misinterpret tio of enesis, but the danger of materialism has become so great that it is time the Theosophical interpretation for is should be understood, it shows there no real conflict between true science and true u r one i a e . relig on , beca se they WHAT IS MAN ?

AN is far more than he knows . He h t thinks he is t eordinary hinking, talk in a i g and e ting, lov ng and hating, sinning and sufiering personality of everyday life ; but that is only the merest fraction of the real man ; that is not the Being to whom Jesus Y m s . aid , e are gods Materialis says mind ” is b - a y product of the brain , but Theosophy

- shows that the brain mind is , in a very pro f b - of ound sense, a y product the Higher i m m ortal Mind, the Reincarnating Ego, the Man for whom the hour shall never ” But still it moves , and recent observa tions have persuaded many Western thinkers that there are really profound depths in man h itherto entirely unsuspected by them . Strange powers of memory under hypnosis , thought

Voice o the ilence f S . WHA T IS M AN? 9

r ir ob transfe ence, cla voyance , movement of ec s t . j without physical contact at will, etc , things which are little more than feeble reflections of the real powers latent in man have forced themselves upon the few independ the ent thinkers , and have proved that behind r the ordina y faculties , five senses and the r un everyday mind , the e lies a region totally explored by Western science .

i d re But this vast reg on , the omain of the E o is s incarnating g , well known to the p y cholo ists r a g of the inne schools of the E st , and Theosophy brings actual knowledge of the nature of man . The first thing we have to learn is that the evolution of the higher central nature has been carried on through enormous ages of time sep arately from the evolution of the lower prin ci les p the passional nature , the body, and “ model ) the astral (or ) body The real man ,

H r h the ighe Ego, knows these t ings , for it and has has lived through ages of experience, knowledge far transcending that of the lower

2 n rinci le o M an e M nu No eve s . e a a . S l , S P p f 1 0 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T man , the physical personality . The Higher o k so Eg nows much more than the lower , which has only been in existence for the short

of - s period one life cycle, that it recognize what experiences are necessary for its real t ma evolution, hough they y not be always to A or pleasing the lower personality, Mr . . ,

! B e s Mrs . . , which r sent the apparently unjust blows of fate . But after death the withdrawal of the best part of the lower the spiritual “ aroma of the past memories into the Higher permanent Ego allows it to perceive t l hat a great p an , like a silver thread, had been running through the events of the past life. Then as the lower nature becomes purified t f the hreshold o sensation broadens , until when absolute impersonality is gained we shall i know ourselves as we are, and real ze the full continuity of purpose through the labyrinth o f past lives .

' A few independent psychologists of America and Europe have satisfied themselves that be sides the objective mind, as they call the

- Of r k brain personality . ordina y wa ing life, WHA T IS M AN? 1 1

t os there is some hing, a subjective mind , p sessing higher powers ; but their subjective i not H e m nd is the igh r Ego , for it can be s is hypnotized and deceived with ca e. It mere ly the manifestation of qualities of some of the “sheaths” or subdivisions of the astral body which are brought into action when the t physical senses are paralysed, either hrough abnormal cataleptic conditions or by the haz ardous h practice of hypnotism . These sheat s o f the astral body are possessed of remarkable powers , the result of processes of evolution xt e ending over long periods . The astral body, though capable of displaying these powers is not to be considered a spiritual being ; its consciousness is largely automatic and its co hesion breaks up soon after death in normal a c ses . When the terrible bondage of person ality that egotism whose strength is hardly suspected until the candidate for purification sets about its destruction in serious earnest i is broken , the astral princ ples will be at the service of the perfect man, but the attempt to arouse them artificially by hypnotic sugges 1 2 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T tion or other abnormal means is fraught with extreme danger to life or sanity . The ancient philosophers who were initiated into the Mys teries and who thoroughly studied the prin ci les knew their ori in p of man , and g , took precautions against the errors and dangers arising from hypnotic suggestion which are unknown to the amateur modern researcher who has received no training in the Esoteric r t schools . While these mode n investiga ors who have made a few tentative efforts to investigate the lower psychic phenomena are playing with shells on the ocean beach of psychology, the adepts have sounded its depths and know its secrets and its dangers , and the

- sacrificin r a long, self g, and impe sonal prepar can tions required , before it be safely tra versed . ’ Speaking of the origins of man s complex m H and ixed nature . P . Blavatsky says

M an was not created the completebeing he is r m n Th r r im er ect he sti e ai s. e e was now, howeve p f ll ic an inte ectua n a spiritual , a psych , ll l, and a animal he hi hest to the o e evolution, from t g l w st, as well

CYCLIC PROGRESS

’ HOUGH Nature s curves of activity ap pear ci rcular when surveyed from one point of view, they are really spirals which o never pass over the same ground twice . S the evolution of man, which is the most important event on our planet (for all tends to become

- or self conscious , Man) , proceeds through a spiral progress upon our Earth - chain of d the globes , an more particularly, upon many difi erent states of existence through which e our world has pass d . ’ The uniformity of plan in Nature s methods in great and small things , is strikingly exempli fied by the similarity of the general scheme f theU r os o evolution guiding niversal o K mic, the m the Planetary , and Hu an development . The principle is firstly that the Divine Im pulse causes the universe to manifest periods CYCLIC PROGRESS 1 5 or ages of alternate activity and repose , or what seems repose in comparison with “ the i M anvantara intensity of life dur ng the , as the objective or active condition is called ; ” t P ralax a sub and secondly, hat as the y , or ective j repose, reaches it close, the objective world is called into being and proceeds from the highest spiritual states down in regular degrees to and through the densest material

ity, and then back again to the original condi tion plus the experience gained on the vast i p lgrimage . The smaller cycles within the great Journey s are spiral curves , each one of which consist of still smaller spirals until at last the individ he h ual life of man is reac d . Eac single life on earth is but a part of the smallest spiral ; the rest of the curve is traced in more ether l Th reincamatin ea . e states g Ego, the real

Man , descends for incarnation from the spir itual condition of Devachan through den ” r - se astral conditions to physical earth life, during which it passes through a regular series

u N 6 Ka loka and Devac n See M an al o. , ma ha . 1 6 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T of phases ; then at death it returns through

- m i the astral, semi aterial conditions to the sp r l D itua peace and rest of evachan . This con ’ tinues life after life until there is no further the need of experience in that cycle , and , e is gr ater spiral being rounded , a new path entered . There are seven great circuits called Rounds in the journey of the M onad or Ray of Divinity which ultimately becomes it s Man , during which assumes many bodie and passes through many vicissitudes of which ordinary history has no conception . The suc cession of the Globe - conditions under which this journey has proceeded, and during which man has obtained present self- conscious ness , is outlined in the preceding Manual (No .

D r u ing the First, Second, and Third i Rounds , the Monad descended nto matter, i S t and in the Fifth , S xth, and even h it will be traveling upward . We are in the middle t i or Four h Round, during wh ch we have

i - ga ned full self consciousness , and now the real fight of the Higher nature for supremacy CYCLIC PROGRESS 1 7

a The Secret has commenced . We re d in D octrine:

Starting upon the long j ourney immaculate; de in r and s cending more and more into s ful matte , having connected himself with every atom in mani fested ace the il rim ha in stru e throu h Sp P g , v g ggl d g i and suffered in every form o f life and beng, is n ha o nly at thebottom of thevalley of matter, a d lf h h h i n i him through his cycle, w en e as de t fied self H Thi h h ein his with collective umanity. s, e as mad i own mage. In order to progress upwards and home

wards, the God has now to ascend the weary u hi h i p ll pat of the Golgotha of Life. It s the

f - n io xi n i isv martyrdom o self co sc us e ste ce. L ke V a k arman he has to sacrifice himself to himself in l r h o rder to redeem a l creatures, to resurrect f om t e i h n i h n many nto t e O e L fe. T en he asce ds into n h n h n h eave indeed ; w ere, plunged i to t e i compre h l ensib e absolute Being and Bliss of Paranirvi na, h r i n n n e eg s u conditio ally, and whence he will re ” descen a ain a h n c i hi d g t t e ext om ng, w ch one por

t ion of humanity expects in its dead - letter sense as second advent n h the , a d t e other as the last Kalki ” A ar vat .

The ecret D ctrine l 1 a 268 o vo . e . S , , p g 1 8 SONS OF THE F IREMIS T CYCL! C PROGRESS 19

Although we are in the middle or lowest

- c globe ondition of the Fourth , or lowest cir

r cuit of the spi al journey, we are not exactly “ in n midway the Rou ds . The present globe , D , provides conditions for the evolution of seven great human races to succeed each other in i upon it, and we are now well on the F fth F ou th Race of these human races . As the r is the most material (corresponding with the Fourth Round) it is clear that we have passed

n r r the ce ter , but as nea ly all the work p eced in g the Fourth Round , and a good deal of that was of the early part of the Fourth Round , merely preparatory building up of the being a e r far now complete as man , we r not ve y on in our career as self - conscious responsible

. t beings The great battle, the final momen of choice between spirituality and materiality (the victory of the latter resulting in ultimate loss of the soul) will not arrive until the h re Fift Round , but every act of today is a p r i for i ri pa at on that cr tical pe od . In the development of the unborn infant we find a perfect example of the repetition 20 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T o r reflection of the great plan of evolution in li i in ttle . As its body is be ng built up by visible forces in readiness for the incarnation o f the immortal Ego all the conditions of the past history of mankind are repeated in minia

t r . r to u e , and in order This will be refe red again ; it is mentioned here as an illustration ’ of of Nature s principle correspondences , of r eflecting the great in the small . The devel O ment p and decay of the races , nations , and ” individuals on each globe , repeat the broad o utline presented in the Cosmic system which i ncludes the minor periods in its scope . The current of the life - wave passes through con ditions of greater and greater limitation and “ ” l es ess and l s spirituality called globes , as it descends along the First Round of the great s the ‘ are diflicul piral, but as y extremely t for u s r to unde stand, very little is said about them until the present globe D of the

F ourth Round is reached .

r William Q . Judge ve y clearly expresses the succession of the races on Earth (globe D during the Fourth Round

THE SPARK AND THE FLAME

THE Theosophical system differs from the popular scientific speculations of theday chiefly in its positive assertion, and demonstra man an evolv tion in practice, that is in reality

- defined ing soul traveling a well path , and wearing down many physical bodies in its jour ney towards divinity . Materialistic science limits human con sciousness to the transient interaction of per ishable brain - cells ; it gives no particle o f light on the past or the futu re of each unit ;

- it repudiates the pre existence of the soul , and regards everything subsequent to embodied earth - life as unknowable or non- existent a curious commentary upon the efforts of the centuries of dogmatic theology Science regards the race as the only unit of progress ; the individual being supposed to be as ephem THE SPARK AND THE F LA M E 23

‘ eral as the beasts that perish , and his ex istenceentirely subordinate to that of the race which itself will perish utterly when the sun grows cold ! o t But The sophy, while admit ing that the race as a whole is on the upward way though not without many set- backs and fail o f ures follows the progress the Monad , D c the Ray of the One ivine Existence , whi h incarnates over and over again in every con i d tion within the terrestrial environment, until , i after being united w th the real thinking Ego , ” H H a the igher Manas or um n Soul , it has exhausted the possibilities of the great cycle

hr i t ough wh ch it has to pass . Then it is trans ported to another garden of the Law to pro ceed on a still higher evolution of which we a cannot h ve any conception at present. Darwinian Evolution ignores the Thread soul ” running through the consecutive exist emees of man ; it gives no light on what it is that evolves ; it confuses the immortal man of the past and future with his perishable body . ff Theosophy, on the other hand, o ers a clear 24 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T picture of the eternal progression of all Na o ture up t higher states of consciousness, like the mathematical line which continually ap proaches another but never meets it though r o t p olonged t infini y . Theosophy does not fall into the theological fallacy that every man at birth is a newly created soul whose acts in onebrief life are destined to make or mar its whole future for eternity. ” The Monad , the immortal being, cannot a se be called spirit, for it is not in essence p arate from the Oversoul . H . P. Blavatsky D calls it a Ray of ivinity, and it is the sub stratum round which the astral model, which itself formed the basis for the physical, was u U ti o grad ally built. l mately the Higher Eg , the part that makes a man a man, united with n the Monadic Ray , like one beam of su shine following another through a hole, and, merg

- ing with it, gave self consciousness . The relationship of the Divine overshadow “ in Atmii g Ray, with the Thinker, H o ffi the igher Eg , is di cult to understand,

ec M anua No 2 even inci l M n . r e o a . S l , S P p s f THE SPARK AND THE F LAM E and in so brief an essay it is sufficient to mention that the former is a universal prin ci le m p manifesting through for s , but is not s humanly conscious , until the Mind or Mana i . t assimilates it It is the substra um of Real ty , toward the knowledge o f which all evolution tends . It is the evolutionary force imprisoned i d i w thin, and stea ily push ng all things towards or higher states . F a fuller statement of this difficult point a careful study of The Secret D octrine is necessary, but truly we need a higher spiritual penetration than is co' mmon today before a full understanding of it can be gained ; yet it is a logical necessity that there should be a Ray from the Unknown D v S i ine ource permeating all things, countless Bha avad sparks of the One Flame . In the g ‘ Gitci there are some: wonderfully expressive passages referring to the Divine M onad

- He who seeth the Supreme Being existing alike imperishable in all perishable things, sees indeed. ir K i n This Supreme Sp it, 0 son of unt , eve i r when it is in the body, nethe acteth nor is it i in affected by action, because, beng without beginn g 26 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

nd e oi f a ri u i han ee As a a d v d o tt b tes, it s c g l ss. n o single sun illuminateth the whole world, eve s r n f doth the One Spirit illumine evey body, 0 so o

Bharata. ( ch. xiii)

i in as It is even a portion of myself wh ch, hav g i sumed life in this world of cond tioned existence, draweth together the five senses and the mind in o rder that it may obtain a body and may leave it

Presiding over the eye, the ear, the u h n h r in to c , the taste, a d t e powe o f smell g, and also over the mind, he experienceth the obj ects of n Th ri se se. e deluded do not see the spi t when it i h in in n q u ttet or rema s the body, or when, moved th u i i i h ri n h by e q al t es, t as expe e ce in t e world . u who h i B t those ave the eye of w sdom perceive it, and devotees who industriously strive to do so see it e in in their own hearts etc — c dw ll g , ( h. xv) Spirit and Matter are not regarded in Theo ff sophy as two fundamentally di erent things , U but as two aspects of an underlying nity, the cause of both . Once they are launched forth into manifestation the Life- substance d i escends into material condit ons , the inter play o f the two opposite polarities produces r a all the phenomena of Nature , and Ka m , the ff Law of cause and e ect, comes into action . THE SPARK AND THE F LAM E 27

Thus the experience is gained for which all this wonderful Evolution and Involution is set in motion . to In order become apparent, electricity must be in the positive and negative conditions , and so it is with the Divine Unity which t manifests in Matter and Spirit . When Mat er w and Spirit are not apparent , unkno n condi tions exist ; between theperiodic appearances of universes this Nirvanic condition prevails . During the cyclic career of the Monad in this World - Period it requires vestures suitable to show forth its different potentialities and o f t latent states consciousness . To obtain hese the intelligent hierarchical forces in Nature touched the springs which aroused its powers and set in motion the Building Forces inherent in it, so that model archetypal forms were gradually projected from spheres of existence where they had been waiting for the evolu tionary impulse ; physical molecules were fin ally attracted to them , clothing them with the material suitable for thegrossest form of life ; the emotional and intellectual faculties 28 SONS OF THE FIREM IS T

were aroused ; and after many ages, primitive

- dual sexed physical man came into being. But er ect not p f man, for humanity has not yet i developed all its intellectual principles , st ll i less the spiritual . They are all with n our r be grasp, but we have a wea y road to travel fore we can stand forth as a race of Christs as and ke or Buddh , the first step we have to ta is the practical recognition of the real inner or of unity solidarity mankind . A mere nom inal assent to the principle of Universal Bro therhood ma , though one y be fully convinced

‘ c x intelle tually, will not avail , e cept as a pre liminary step ; the real consciousness of the inner divine nature of man only comes by the cultivation of the finer attributes of mind and heart, such as Compassion , that urge which feels aninjury to another as keenly as to one x self, that ine pressible yearning that all hu manity shall cease to live this death in life ; by that courage which shrinks from nothing when the interest of others is at stake ; and by the purification that comes only from joy ous n u selfish work for others .

30 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T kindred facts for ages and which has recorded n a their origins, and k ows their signific nce . But although Theosophy holds the keys of that does not mean the have all knowledge, y i th orld been ven to ew . g On the contrary, the Custodians of the ancient records have with r and held the g eater part of their information , have given out but the main outlines with a few details here and there ; still there is more

’ the than enough for present, and day by day fresh corroborations arecoming up which en able students of Theosophy to interpret with more clearness the valuable hints that have been given . THE LATENT POWERS AWAKEN

T is now possible to go a little more into I ” detail concerning man on globe D of t F or his Fourth Round . a general sketch of “ ” theRounds and the position therein of globe D in each Round the reader is referred to No the preceding Manual ( . and for a wealth of evidence from innumerable records o f the past history of mankind preserved in l r - iving tradition , in manusc ipt, on palm leaf or r on papy us , carved in glyph or symbol e nduring stone, or set forth in other ways , Isis Unveiled and TheSecret Doctrineshould b e consulted . The “inherent and necessary law of devel 0 ment i p spoken of by sc ence , is contained in the Divine Spark or Monad (Atma- Buddhi) The Monad is the cause of Evolution and l ies behind all minor agencies such as Natural 32 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

in and Sexual Selection , etc . , which are the struments through which it works for pro e an gress . The Monad, after njoying exist unar ence upon the L Chain , a condition of existence of which the Moon is a surviving r es elic , enters the Terr trial Chain of globes , clothes itself with the fi ner states of earthly matter, and assumes in orderly succession vari ous changes of consciousness unknown to mod

em on . thought, its way to become man Nature ’ s first attempts to form man were o f at first unsuccessful, for the unfoldment the Monadic potentialities is unable to pro ceed beyond a certain point without the addi re tion of another principle , the Manas , or flectin M g ind, and this had to be evoked by

- who Beings possessing this self consciousness , had been evolving under other conditions . They communicated to the imperfect animal man the divine principle of intelligence , which ” - is not a by product of the brain . Endowed

the - man with this , rudimentary half formed e man b came truly , a thinker , and acquired that greater power of progression which renders LATENT P OWERS A WAKEN 33

ff the him di erent from brutes , who have not had the latent intellectual and self - conscious powers of the Monad aroused . The doctrine o f the coming o f the Sons of Mind into nascent humanity is one of the greatest reve lations o of The sophy, for it explains the pre sence of theHigher Ego in us ; and though it is found in more or less veiled hints in all the

- es world scriptur , it was not understood until they were studied in the revealing light of

Theosophy . The doctrine is concealed under Gene blinds in the first chapters of sis . The reader is urged to dwell upon this supremely o important p int carefully, and to observe how it completely alters the point o f view from which the origin and nature of man must be studied . ” G ” The various Angels , ods , Powers , and other subordinate divinities that were be lieved in until this materialistic age , by divers peoples , are the groups or Hierarchies of spir itual - and semi spiritual Beings , corresponding to the principles in man , which assisted the unfolding of the inherent powers of the Mon 34 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

so to i ad, by projecting, speak, the vivify ng sparks in order to arouse the particular aspect i to or principle correspond ng themselves , each r to each . One of the leading featu es of Theo u e sophy, which opens a line of inquiry q it new to modern thinkers and without which they must continue to struggle to explain nat ural phenomena by means of inadequate mater ialistic t ma hypo heses, is that hu nity and all things make progress by responding to stimuli i which arouse latent powers . These st muli can only come from more advanced intelli gences who already have these particular qual D ities in activity . well carefully upon this

fundamental concept .

THE F IRST AND SECOND RACES

WHEN incipient man arrived upon earth at the beginning of the Fourth Round , the Hierarchy called the Lunar Pitris or

r t his r i Fathe s, furnished him wi h fi st dwell ng, ” r h t a subtle ethereal fo m , the s adow of hem i aflorded o f selves , wh ch the elemental forces LA TENT POWERS A WAKEN 35

nature a model upon which to build . The consciousness of this highly ethereal First Race was instinctual and has gradually blended with our complex make- up so intimately that n u S we ca not now disting ish it separately . elf consciousness does not awaken until the end of the Third Race .

h im h The fi rst race of men were, t en, s ply t e m r f heir F a h rs wh i ages, the ast al doubles, o t t e , o r n i i were the pioneers, or the most prog essed E t t es l wer h r h he of from a preceding though o sp e e, t e s ll

hich is n w r M n A h of w o ou oo . t t e end the r h heir Third Round, they we e already uman in t

ecome divine nature, and were thus called upon to b the creators o f the forms destined to fashion the

r M n h tabem acles of the less p ogressed o ads, w ose “ turn it was to incarnate)

h in After many ages t is shadowy, almost comprehensible state of humanity or what i was to become human ty later changed , and and the First Race gave birth to the Second , that to the Third . Of the First and Second little can be said . There was no death at first ,

Th ecret D trin 1 1 1 1 e 5. e oc e ol. a S , v , p g 36 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T for this incipient humanity had no physical bodies to wear out ; spirit and matter were not

e uilib rized yet q .

Even the state of mental torpo r and , unconscious ness of the first two Races and of the fi rst half r o f the Thi d Race, is symbolized, in the second n si e le chapter of Ge e s, by the d ep s ep of Adam “ the slumber of the Soul and M ind)

The Primitive Race merged into the Second “ ” one Race and became with it. The man of the second Race , which was a little more the ff materialized than First , produced o spring ” r by fission e budding, in the manner of cell division . At this time, we may note , the Race was still devoid of the element of De d sire an Passion , which did not evolve until the Third Race, and so hermaphroditism was

r the natural o der . T D i h r oc r n . In e Sec et t e H . P Blavatsky published some remarkable Stanzas or Verses an M S TheBook o Dz an from archaic f y , to she i which had access , but wh ch is not yet

t e! available to archaeologists . This antique

rin 1 1 a 1 81 The Secret Doct e, vol. , p ge .

38 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

the The men , during First and Second a i Races, were not physic l be ngs , but merely rudiments of the future men the sexes had not become separated , and , above all , the e of M anas t of Di desc nt the , hat Spark vine Intelligence which transformed the (intellect uall r e y) senseless emb yonic, and almost stru tu reless sub- human forms of these Races into la Men potential Gods had not taken p ce . “ But when Adam awoke from his deep sleep he the found Eve beside him, and Fall The t e took place . descent into mat er, a com anied the p by the separation of sexes, was thus allegorized ; the material bodies being Genesis 21 U referred to in iii . , nto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God mak e f k ” c o . oats s ins , and clothed them In these “ ” v coats, the primiti e, astral forms which had been weaving round the Monad for countless a i to ges , perfect ng the vehicle for the Mind u se a , were enclosed. The earlier ethere l evo lution of the Monad through the early Rounds of and the first Races of this Round, the ages i c and nno ence , is included in the first chapter LA TENT POWERS AWAKEN 39

r of the o f Genesi pa t second chapter s . With the eating of the fruit of the Tree of Know ledge came personal responsibility and the i power to rise or fall intelligently . Th s took place finally m thelatest Third and theFourth or a Atlantean R ce .

The First and Second Races , being boneless , and not material in the full sense of the word , have left no traces in the rocks ; their relics ” e the hav to be sought elsewhere . As men of the First Race melted away they were ab t sorbed in the denser, hough still viscid forms of the Second Race, but not until the Third R ace had been established for several o f w s i e millions years , a there anything tang bl n enough to last until today as a wit ess . The most ethereal vestures of the Monad were m forming around it , until then in har ony with the gradually condensing substance of the Earth - Chain of globes : they are now to be within found the human frame , but few scientists have yet suspected the existence o f

- the s these semi material principles , a tral bod i s the e . The Monad cannot act directly upon 40 SONS OF THE F IREM IST m aterial plane, where it is unconscious until it has acquired the intermediate Manasic or H c or igher Intelligen e Mind, and that mind itself cannot act directly through the physi cal body ; it also needs something more ether eal to serve as a transformer of the lower v ibrations into higher ones which it can ap reci 1 3 the p ate. This function of thecomplex s and kamic ystem of astral emotional ( ) bodies , “ one which were , at period , naked, and they ” a were not ash med , for they were in har n mony with the surrou ding conditions . Grad uall a y, as the Third R ce developed and “ passed out of the sinlessness of unconscious ” ness into the strife caused by the progress o f evolutionary unfoldment and the descent a into matter, the physic l body took shape , m r olded upon the primeval a chetypal form . ex Man , in the course of the innumerable eriences a p of the Monad in the e rly Rounds , passed through and shed many slightly vary ing ethereal forms which were afterwards taken up and utilized by his younger b ro

Genesis, 1 1 . 25. LATENT P O WERS A WAKEN 41 thers the a or , anim ls , and around into which s their physical bodies were molded . The po ” oi u ar session un sed rudiment y organs, like

- a the ear muscles , is thus clearly expl ined by for M an Theosophy, it shows that is the store oi house all forms , a few of which , though i unnecessary now, still g ve evidence of their en o f hu past existence . The developm t the man embryo shows the possession oi many more forms than are preserved in adult life

i - n (such as g ll clefts in the neck) . The unbor child runs through the whole gamut of evo lution the i from m neral kingdom, through the

- t plant form and upwards , reproducing in lit le the broad conditions through which the Monad has passed throughout the preceding Rounds and Races .

It may be asked , What evidence is there that an astral body is still to be found within man ’ s physical frame ? In the short space at our dis posal it is impossible to quote authorities , but there is an immense mass of reliable informa tion upon the subject which can be readily ’ ’ D Assier s found by anyone who needs it . 42 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

ed array of cases only explicable by theexist ence o f a fluidic body surviving the death of

h r a r s ir . es t e . mate i l fo m Profe sor S W Crook ,

Dr lla F lammar . Alfred R. Wa ce , M . Camille ion B tazzi of e , Professor o Napl s , and others who rank among the foremost thinkers of the T r r wentieth centu y, have recorded with ca e their rigi d scientific experiments in the de m of its i onstration existence, and to a lim ted ev ext t . s ent, of its struc ure and powers In eral of the Manuals of this series the question of the Astral world is treated in the light I i n il d f n s s U ve e . o i . Theosophy, and H P Bla vatsky entered very fully into its relation to h uman life . INCARNATION OF THE EGO

h im E ave now arrived at the . most portant point in the history of forming humanity and one that is extremely difficu lt to render in simple language . While there was a Ray or Expression of the Divine in each primitive and potential human form from the very beginning, help was needed before

l - it could advance towards sefconsciousness . To i to the t g ve it this , open men al eye , other more progressed spiritual Beings had to over or r shadow blend with the Monad, fu nishing it with the needed touch to arouse the latent

r fi es . But as H . P. Blavatsky says , Nature ” ff unaided fails , that is to say, the e orts of

- intelli the Nature forces to create a thinking,

gent man , merely resulted in the birth of gro tesque creatures and progenitors o f the ani

mals , though these attempts were energized 44 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T by the evolutionary tendency active in the s Monadic e sence, which itself is part of the whole Kosmic movement towards higher con ditions . The mysterious beings , the Sons who of Mind , merged their consciousness into the incomplete forms of the Third Race m making them hu an , had passed through vast experiences in other spheres but had not got beyond the necessity of further incarnation in matter, and they had to blend with rudiment ary man before further advance could be made . But there are not two Monads in each m i the o hu an being, for w th f rmation of com pleteman by the arousing of the latent powers ms unit M n h beco e a . ot within, e The onad is a substantial entity that may be handled in any way ; though it has to be considered while speaking in general language as an apparently D separate Ray of the ivine Oversoul, yet that

Oversoul is really One . Could we see our selves as we really are as a whole we should be greatly astonished . We should see how the innumerable Principles or Hierar

46 SONS OF THE F IREM IST

r . con material life . It is their Ka ma As a e ff r sequence , w are now su e ing from many evils in the world that might have been avoided . The Secret Doctrine is very reticent con cerning the exact method by which man de rived his physical body after the Monad had passed through the ethereal states of the

Earlier Rounds and Races . H . P. Blavatsky says

F in i i n n ally, t s shown i every ancie t Scripture and Cosmogony that man evolved primarily as a lamin ous incor real po form, over which, like molten brass r un h f h r o d t e clay model o t e sculpto , the physical i w u u m frame of h s body as b ilt by, thro gh, and fro , the lower forms and types of terrestrial

736 1 1 Th e ret Doctrine . eS c On page . vol of ,

' the writer gives some information which must n have proved startling to materialistic mi ds . ” Speaking of the midway point of evolution , she says it is that stagewheretheastral prototypes definitely begin h ica and hu to pass into the p ys l, t s become subj ect

ecr t Doctrine ol 1 1 a 1 1 2 The e v . e . S , , p g INCARNA TION OF THE EGO 47 to the differentiating agencies now Operative around h i a au sa i n su er n s imm i n us. P ys c l c t o p ve e ed ately o “ ” i n f i - i e o f oa n . . h h the assumpt o c ts o sk s , t e p ys i n in r iological equ pme t geneal . The known n ri in n fo i physiological co t vances orga isms [ r eat ng,

ti c. er mos n ir o a diges ng, et ! w e al t e t ely ev lved s bse quently to the incipient physicalization of the 7 “ Root- Types out of the astral during the midway ” n w i n halt betwee the t o planes of ex ste ce. A s to the former reality o f the descent [o f the astral! into the physical, which culminated in phys ni iological man and a mal, we have a palpable testimony in the fact o f the so- called spiritualistic “ materializations. In all these instances a complete temporary mer f he astra int the h sica s a gence o t l o p y l take pl ce. The evolution of physiological M an out of the astral races of the early Lemu rian age the Jurassic age — “ o f Geology is exactly paralleled by the mater ” “ ” iz ion of s iri s in the séanc room ial at p t e . In ’ ” h ca f r ess r roo es K ti Kin t e se o P of o C k a e g, the resence of a h siolo ical mechanism — heart un p p y g , l gs, w in u i a emonstra etc. as d b t bly d ted 1 l

B ’ . la a sk s There are other passages in H P. v t y works which give more light upon this ex tremel y important and interesting subject, but

Th ecret Doctrine l 1 1 736- 7 e vo . a es S , , p g . 48 S ONS OF THE F IREM IS T complete information concerning the details of the process has been reserved . Enough has been suggested to provide material for intelli

to - gent thought, and show that the ape ancestry theory is not theonly alternativeto thespecial

- - creation Adam and Eve story taken literally .

’ With the general transformation of condi the of tions separation the sexes took place . U no m and ntil then there was duality, no ale and of female , as the present arrangement mammalian reproduction is not the sole meth ’ od in all Nature s kingdoms even today, we need not be surprised at the Theosophical statement that the time will come when it man will be obsolete . This will not be until has learned the great lesson of self- control and has arrived much nearer the stature o f h D t e ivine . The Higher Ego is beyond the

r tempo ary illusion of sex . With the incarnation of the Lords of the Flame the Mind or Manasic principle h b in their t ree stages of progress , the true e ” oi ginning Man , the Thinker, is made . This 1 8 a o took place about millions of years g , and INCARNA TION OF THE EGO 49

ever since then we have been complete septen ar a y beings while on e rth , experiencing the x most e traordinary vicissitudes of climate, t u r emperat re , and civilization . Pe iods of bar barism have succeeded periods of the great est the c intellectual brilliancy, o ean has flowed i over the sites of long forgotten c ties, new l a man ma ands have appe red y times , and nkind has had to start afresh more than once from the widespread ruin of nations and continents .

There have been many destructions by water, “ ” fire , and earthquake , and the primitive man o f the Stone Age of archaeology is not primi o tive at all . L ng before he appeared there of i e were magnificent civilizations , wh ch pra tically not a trace remains in recognizable the form . When the time comes for revela tion of the full details of thepast civilizations which existed millions of years before the so c alled primitive beginnings of our present one , n there will be ma y surprises . Of course , as e we ourselves are the heritag of the past, it will be clear that we have gained such ex periences in what we have passed through in 50 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

the immense period we have been on earth, that it will not be necessary to repeat them in ff the same form . Our present age is di erent from every preceding one in the details of

r life , even in the natu al conditions .

The first Race had three rudimentary elements in no r u An it ; and fi e as yet ; beca se, with the cients, f man n the evolution o , and the growth a d develop m n f hi iri u n h e t o s sp t al a d p ysical senses, were sub ordinate to the evolution of the elements on the

r Cosmic plane of this Ea th.

The following order on parallel lines may be found in the evolution o f the Elements and the ” en in i t rr r M N i S ses ; or Cosm c e est ial A or Spir t, and mortal physical man

H n 1 Ether eari g Sound. i Touch n 2 A r Sou d and Touch. 3 h F ire, or Light Sig t Sound, Touch and Color.

W r ste 4 ate Ta Sound, Touch, Color and Taste .

5 rth me oun Ea S ll S d, Touch, Color, Taste an m d S ell .

n As seen, each Eleme t adds to its own character

i s re e essor - istics, those of t p d c ; as each Root Race a the characterizin sense of h r e in R dds g t ep ec d g ace. Th me is true in the se tenar rea io e sa p y c t n o f man, INCARNATION OF THE EGO 51

he who evolves gradually in seven stages, and on t same principles

Though we have learned much which in the normal man of today is locked up in the mys terious storehouse to which the Higher Ego e h alone has acc ss , and which only t ose who have become one with ' the Father in heaven m Hi ou r can or dare reme ber , the gher part of being is awaiting fuller development in the a future R ces , the Sixth and Seventh ; and for the completion of perfect Man there are the i a a th ix mme surable vist s of the Fif , S th , and Seventh Rounds stretching in front of us with i The Pe their unth nkable promise of glory . r fected Men who are helping humanity now and always are Those who have lifted them

r ff selves , by he oic e ort, above the level of r t a ordina y mankind of his Fifth R ce , into the condition which will not be normal until the

next Round . Ages must pass before that per iod arrives , but we can hasten the good i r time by the study and pract ce of alt uism . 1 7 Th ecret D octrine ol a e 0 . v . e S , II, p g U RAD D LEM RIA , THE C LE OF MANKIN

THE development of the Third Race is re corded in the Indian Puranas and other world- scriptu res and traditions under various

- allegories , and its innumerable sub races and divisions are referred to under the disguise o f d eities , heroes , kings, etc . The interpretations R were reserved for students . The Third ace s t s ubdivides naturally into hree great group , the first of which may be called the Sons ” o f the F iremist. They sacrificed themselves at the beginning for the good of the Monads who were waiting their coming and failing

‘ their appearance would have had to linger on f r r - t o ages in i responsible, animal like , hough

n . is i appearance human , forms Opposed to th lofty group came the lowest, which wandered far from the human fold at last . To the dregs o f this group is attributed the origin o f the

S4 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

o Gs c CAI. PERIODS

Cainozoi c Pleistocene Ternar and y Pleiocene Recent) M eiocene

Eocene

Cretaceous M esozmc Ju rassic ( Secondary) Triassic

Carboniferous Devonian PalaeozoIC Siiurian Cambrian

Primary A rchaean

not million , and as we have the slightest evi dence of the rate o f sedimentation in the far distant ages there is nothing to prove definitely which small division corresponds with the Races and sub- Races whose records we are n considering. The above diagram represe ts, with no attempt at positive accuracy, the paral elism l . The continent of Lemuria (a name invented LEM URIA 55 by Science and adopted by Theosophy for public use in lieu of its own term) extended across the Indian Ocean and far on both sides of it it. To the Northwest stretched as far i h as Sweden and Norway . The great Engl s fresh - water deposit called the Wealden which every geologi st regards as the estuary — of a former great river is the bed of the main stream which drained Northern Lemuria S in the econdary age . Towards the East it New ! r i Pa included ealand , Aust al a , and the cific r Islands , and even a st ip of California or including Point L na . The Pacific Islands are the remains of mountain summits belong

r ing to this submerged egion . Easter Island 1 1 0 ° 26° W . S. ai r ( , ) cont ns rema kable gigan a tic st tues , enduring witnesses to the artistic ability and mechanical skill of the later Le murians H . . P . Blavatsky gives a few out lines o f the primitive civilizations which slowly grew up through the efforts of the later Third he Race men . S speaks of m n nd ci i iz na ion e a v l ed t s, not Palaeolithic savages on who un er the ui anceof h ir di in ly ; , d g d t e v eRulers, 56 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

built large cities, cultivated arts and sciences, i This primeval civilization did not, as onemay th nk, immediately follow their physiological transforma

n h n i n n h rs cit tion. Betwee t e fi al evolut o a d t e fi t y built, many hundred thou sands of years had passed .

fi - Yet, we nd the Lemurians in their sixth sub race building their first rock cities out o f stone and lava. One of such great cities of primitive structu re was b uilt entirely of lava, some thirty miles west from where Easter Island now stretches its narrow piece r i o f ste ile ground, and was ent rely destroyed by a r ni r i ‘ se ies of volca c e upt ons. The Lemurians of the last ages were now complete men ; in fact they had perceptive powers that have become practically atrophied

i r since . They had physical bodies wh ch epro

r duced their kind in p esent fashion . Between the sketch- humanity of the First and Second Races and the full development of the latest h o T ird , Nature tried several modes of repr ff o duction, and many o sho t and degraded races

o r had come int being, but g adually the human stock settled down into an approximate uni in formity in external appearance, though the ’ i i diflered ner development of ind v duals widely .

Th ret Doctrine vol a 1 e ec . e 3 7. S , II, p g THE THIRD EYE

AS the Monadic Ray illuminated by the light of the Higher Manas , like one pris matic ray of color blending with another and i modifying it, associated tself more closely with the lower principles o f the astral model

- o f body, the passional emotional principle a a K ma , the vital solar energy of Pr na, and the material molecular body , man lost many the of spiritual powers , while the intellectual ones the rays of the Higher Manas grew of d stronger. Even at the end the Thir Race man still possessed an organ of spir i l i i l tua vision in act v ty. The Greek egend o f the Kyklopes with an eye in the forehead was a recollection of this , for a Third Eye , ’ of the Eye of S iva , the organ spiritual per i n t ce t o . p , was in full ac ivity in Lemurian days

M n 2 even rinci le o M an No s . ee a ua . S l , S P p f 58 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

i h e the sons o The mytholog cal t ree Kyklop s , f Heaven and arth m the e E , sy bolize last thre sub - s a race of the Third Root R ce, and the legend of the famous hero Odysseus who put o ut m a the eye of Polyphe os, a Cyclope n giant ,

- hot b a o with a red rand, is b sed upon the psych of physiological atrophy the Third Eye . The same legend with a few variations is found in rm to Ireland, where Fi is said have destroyed ’ a i w a iron wicked g ant s eye ith a he ted spit . I o of a ron is a symb l p ssion and desire .

Civilization has ever developed the physical and h intellectual at the cost o f t e psychic and spiritu al . Thecommand and theguidanceover his own psychic nature, which foolish men now associate with the H supernatu ral, were with early umanity innate and con ni n m t man u ge tal, a d ca e o as nat rally as walk “ ing and thinking)

With the Fall of man into material con ditions i a of , the Third Eye , the spir tual org n v ision , was gradually transformed (physically) i nto a simple gland, and ceased to perform its i f i funct on in the vast majority o men . It s

The ecret D ctrine l o vo . a e3 1 S , II, p g 8. THE “ THIRD EYE ” 59

n Conarium k own as the Pineal gland or , and is deeply covered by the posterior part of the cerebral hemisphere . Certain saurians of the Secondary geological period possessed a well defined third eye, and it is a singular fact that the most perfect known living representative o f t the rep iles with this organ developed, is an ! oneo f inhabitant of New ealand , the sur i in m v v g re nants of Lemuria . It is a small Hatteria S henodon unctata lizard , ( p ) p , which has a well- defined third eye with lens and of of optic nerve, under the skin the top the head . This eye may be sensitive to light, but

r is useless fo distinct physical vision . The existing forms of life on Australia and New ! ealand resemble those o f the Secondary per iod more closely than those in any other part of the world .

While the Third Eye was in man, and still o f is when aroused by training, the organ

clairvo spiritual sight, (not ordinary astral y a no r a nce , which requires special pu ific tion) in the animal it was that of objective vision ; having performed its function 60 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T it was replaced in the course o f physical evolution rom i h f the s mple to t e complex, by two eyes, and thus was stored and laid aside by Natu re for fur h r u in eon o m H a t e se a s t co e. ( . P. Blav tsky)

The War in Heaven of Christian Theo logy is related in one o f its meanings to the Third Race . H . P. Blavatsky says

The Third Race was pre- eminently the bright h shadow, at first, of t e gods, whom tradition exiles on Earth after theallegorical war in Heaven ; which i became st ll more allegorical on Earth, for it was h w n ir r T i t e ar betwee sp it and matte . h s war will last till the inner and divine man adj usts his outer rr ri hi n ri n ur i h n te est al self to s ow spi tual at e. T ll t e the dark and fierce passions of the former will be

u i i h D i M an at eternal fe d w th h s master, t e iv ne .

B h ani al i am n ecaus its ut t e m w ll be t ed o e day, b e naturewill bechanged, and harmony will reign once ” mor r h e between the two as befo e the F all, w en even mortal man was created by the Elements and ‘ was not born.

Physical changes in outer Nature aecom panied the atrophy of the Third Eye and the

r i - development of the b a n mind ; the climate,

The ecret D octrine l vo . a 2 S , II, p ge 68.

62 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T concerning the warm periods at both ends m the in various prehistoric ages . The cli ate of habitable world at the commencement o f the a Third R ce must have been almost perfect, “ but as man fell and the struggle between the higher and the lower commenced, the natu ral surroundings synchronously became

r i less ag eeable . The idea g ven in the Bible allegory that the animals fell ” under th’e u u c rse with Adam, is founded upon the sig i ficant truth that man is the creator of his

s surroundings , and that Nature simply obey the demands made upon her . As long as man

and crucifies is the sport of his passions , the of higher part himself, the Christos within ,

Nature will produce the earthquakes , the of a storms , the extremes he t and cold , and venomous and noxious animals will multiply . These things could not exist unless there was r s the a cause for them , for Natu eexist for ’ ” are i soul s experience . They nstruments which the law of Karma has developed for i i i e h the d scipl ne of sent ent b ings . They are t e THE THIRD EYE 63

i curses com ng home to roost, in a very literal sense . As H . P . Blavatsky says

Inti ith mately, o r rather indisso lubly, connected w Karma [the Law of Action and perfect Justice! h n is h w f r ir h r f h r in rnation t e , t e la o eb t , o o t e e ca of he same s iri in i t p tual d viduality in a long , almost in r terminable, series of personalities. The latter a e like the various costumes and characters played by th r h i i e sameacto , wit each o f wh ch that actor denti fies him n i i i h self a d s ident fied by the publ c, for t e s ace f f w r i p o a e hours. But the oute , v sible chara ter is su i nor n of h c pposed to be g a t t e fact. r i n n In actual life that igno ance s, u fortu ately, b ut h n n too real . Nevert eless, the perma e t individuality is u a are o f the h h h f lly w fact, t oug , t rough the ” a r h f h iri u n t op y o t e sp t al eye i the physical body, that knowledge is unable to impress itself on the “ consciousness of the false personality)

The ecret Doctrine l 1 1 a 30 5 vo . . S , , p ge RISE OF ATLANTIS

FTER the Lemurians had existed for ages as beings not very different from i the mankind of later times , yet more sp ritual v la than intellectual, a gradual di ision took p ce

- into two well marked sections , the Sons of f D Light and the Sons o arkness . Selfish de sire increased and the decline of the Third a to R ce set in rapidly, but was not allowed proceed too far . The Law of Progress pre vented too great a downfall by the destruction of a large portion of the individuals through i f e the break ng up o the L murian Continent. Simultaneously with the decay of the Third io of new Race civilizat ns , the beginnings the a to a and type of man , the Fourth, beg n appe r, new lands arose from the sea to take the place o f the i i prev ous cont nent . Some of the islands o f Polynesia areremains of some of themoun RISE OF A TLANTIS 65

of - e and the tain tops long forgotten L muria , i n r . at ve t aditions of a universal deluge, etc , a gre tly puzzled the early missionaries, who c ould not conceive how the ignorant savages , a a ob living in widely sc ttered isl nds , had tained stories closely resembling those of the the Creation and the Flood in Bible . Aus tralia and New ! ealand are the largest parts o f Lemuria now existing, but there are other ” portions , such as Ceylon , Lanka, which is a remnant of a northern highland of Lemuro

Atlantis , and the Polar lands , though the lat ter belong properly to the First and Second continents . Lemuria is said to have perished finally years before the commencement of G s the Tertiary age of eology . The highe t

i r group of its nhabitants , the compa atively few ” Sons of Light, were not disturbed by the upheavals , for they had taken precautions and had moved away to safer regions ; most of the small proportion of the average mankind that escaped centered towards land which is now r he i under the wate s of t north Atlant c . 66 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

They formed the nucleus of the next Root

Race , the Atlantean , and from that land the coming great Atlantean civilization spread over the new continent that was rising. Nature b never reaks the continuity of her processes , so no hard and fast line can be drawn as to i when one race ends and another beg ns . For many thousands of years thefirst sub- race of the Fourth had been developing parallel with the culminating of the last sub - races of the

- Third, just as we see today a new sub race of our Fifth Root- Race forming in America ; so that the relic of mankind saved from destruc tion contained representatives in all degrees of advancement . r Th The diagram following, taken f om e ecret Doctrine h S , will make the scheme of u man development during the Fourth Round a little clearer . It should be well remembe red that it is not only mankind as a whole, but the man as individual Ego, whose progress we are tracing. The Races are the temporary ve hieles of the larger life of the Egos constitut in g them , and though they may perish when RISE OF A TLANTIS 67

and they have served their purpose, before too i they have fallen deeply into degradat on , the immortal Ego simply passes on to the next experience and will continue to do so unt1l

- r the succeeding Manvantara , or World Pe iod .

EVOLUTION OF ROOT- RACES IN THE FOURTH UND ON G B D RO , LO E .

M ERIDIAN OF RACES

(F rom TheSecret Doctrine) FALL OF ATLANTIS

AR back in what we are accustomed to call

antiquity, but which in true relationship to the ages O f past human experience is but as G re yesterday, Plato, the reek Initiate , vealed a glimpse Of a surprising knowledge of the mysterious continent and civilization of H Atlantis . is account is merely a sketch of the destruction of the last islands remaining r not after the g eater catastrophes , for he was permitted to gi ve the full story of the lost of i antediluvian world , and what he did g ve be we have but a portion . But, fortunately , sides the legends in the Indian Puranas and iffi elsewhere , which are d cult to interpret, there are other and more complete records in the possession O f the Custodians of the Wisdom f he s O t Ages , Theo ophy ; and it is from these h H s s t at . P . Blavat ky elected a few passages

70 SONS OF THE F IREM IST many cyclic depressions for the Atlantean civ ilization marked a turmng- point in thehistory o f a U i h l l the E rth . nt l t en mankind was s ow y descending into material conditions with a cor r s ondin o c ration in s irituali ep g bs u p ty. The a Atlanteans stand as the apotheosis of m tter, and it was in those far- distant days that the heaviest Karma of the human race was gen c h a rated , a Karma w ich is holding us b ck from r s the advance we should othe wi e make , and whose existence explains many of the dith culties i and anomalies of life . Human ty reached its fullest physical development in the a s Fourth R ce, the physical bodies themselve th b eing much larger an at present. The old s i s aying that there were g ants in tho e days, was a correct when applied to the Atlante ns . Thecurious decrease in the size of many or anisms g , which is so well marked in the case o f the fearful saurians of the Secondary per i od now represented by comparatively min u tereptilian forms also took place in thehu man kingdom ; but as the practice of crema tion was almost universal we are not likely to F ALL OF A TLANTIS 71

find many remains of gigantic human bones . Immense footprints have been found in the

U . i a . S geolog c strata of Nevad and Ohio, A which seem to be human, but geology has not definitely sanctioned the claim that they are so H k . . P . Blavats y was very definite in her statements that undeniable proofs would be forthcoming, at the right time , of the con ditions of life in the lost continent of Atlantis ; ff i so we can well a ord to wa t . The Fourth Race started under far less fav

r l a ds o ab econditions than the Third , and tow r its decline the story of Lemuria was repeated on lower levels ; the same fight between the higher and lower natures within and without i was waged, but more merc lessly ; and as that was the age of Passion and Desli' ein excelsis O f S ir s was and the eclipse p ituality, the re ult mainly in favor of the lower principles for a the long time . But not for ever , for, although majority Of the Atlanteans were not the de scendants of the higher group of the Third m Race , the one third that re ained faithful fought such a good fight that they were en 72 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T abled to escape before the Deluge from the

th - lands that had been cursed by eevil doers , and to become the progenitors of the majority o f our r present, A yan, humanity . The story ’ o f D one of s a Noah s eluge is, in its aspect , fanciful account o f the great Atlantean sub m e one ersion ; but it also has d eper meanings, of which allegorizes the primeval building of h t eworld . Full personal responsibility came to theman o f the Atlantean period , and although the last o r final choice between spiritual advancement on one or the side, and materialism personal ” a on the o ggrandizement other , g od and evil, not c for of has yet ome the mass humanity, nd not x a will until the ne t Round, a long step in was that direction taken by the Atlanteans . l th n But Nature is mercifu , and e world is ot destined to perish ingloriously so before the r th law mischief had become ir eparable, e that moves to righteousness again arrested further degradation by giving a shock which allowed the Egos to start anew with a fresh o pportunity, upon new lands not soaked F ALL OF A TLANTIS 73

i m o i a through w th the evil me ories p st sins . - The majority of the Atlantean evil- doers per ished finally amid indescribable terrors , and the ocean soon obliterated all remains of that proud civilization which had misapplied great er powers than any with which we have since been entrusted . The last large destruction took c place towards the close of the Meio ene age, when the Alps were upraised . Most of those then destroyed were of the gi ant race ; but mankind was already diminishing in size, and when the final destruction of the few remain ing islands upon which Atlanteans still ex isted r took place , only about yea s ago, men had long before assumed their present the proportions . It was latter destruction to which Plato refers when he handed on the tradition that the gods had caused the wicked Atlanteans to perish years before his * TheSecret Doctrine H Bla time . In . P. vat

commen sky quotes , from an ancient esoteric r ta y, a most thrilling description of the escape ” of the faithful and of the struggle which

ecret D octrine 427 The vol a e . S , . II, p g 74 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T took place between the Sons of Darkness and the Sons of Light just before the final break up O i one O f the largest island regions of At? l - r s antis . Air ships of g eat perfection were u ed ” r by the White Adepts , and the measu es tak en and the weapons spoken of illustrate a much deeper knowledge of natural forces - r m has agic than science yet suspected , for tunately for us in this age of selfishness ! As may be seen by a reference to the dia gram On page 54 the fifth or Aryan race had started some time before the last destruction D of Atlantis . escended from the more spir

z l ss f ituali ed c a . o and better Atlanteans, a few had preserved the knowledge o f their ances tors and were ready to revive it when the

race demanded it . The institution of the M ysteries in all countries at a later period was an ff t e ort, and fortunately a successful one , o preserve the ancient wisdom from the profan io it ff exam e at m had su ered in Atlantis . An m of the profound knowledge of the Atlanteans is shown in the astronomical computations of I di n an astronomy, which are based upon a F ALL OF A TLANTIS 75 little that was permitted to escape from the u the g ardianship of Mysteries .

a too It was in Atl ntis , , that language took inflectional its form , after having passed from the stage of musical nature - sounds in the Sec in ond Race , to monosyllabic speech the later i Third , and then to the agglut native form in the Fou rth . Of course writing was well known to the Fourth Race , for during its long career it possessed civilizations higher than were those of Greece or Rome in their palm i iest days , and even far h gher than our own

ivi h c lization today, thoug it may have been lost to the world at large during the period of confusion when the first sub - races of the Fifth were forming. The traces of writing in the Stone Age (which belongs to our epoch) are not conclusive ; and yet it is strange and entirely unexplained by mod ern science , that Palaeolithic man could draw a animals upon ntlers and cavern walls , etc . , in a style that would not disgrace a good i h is ai draughtsman of today, and wh c cert nly superior in accuracy to that o f some of the 76 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

78 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

history of man does not go back, as H . P.

r Blavatsky says , furthe than the fantastic ‘ sub - origins of our fifth race , a few thous ands of years . In the brief space at our disposal , only the most cursory reference can be made to the progress of humanity during the Fifth Race . The destruction of the spiritually degraded Atlanteans gave a shock to the survivors which resulted in the sinking of material civilization for a long time over the main portion of the globe ; we are not yet told exactly what pro portion of the wbrld kept some vestiges O f the

r r past g eatness, but it cannot have been la ge . ff Anyway, the e ect of the fresh start was good , for it provided conditions under which the later comparatively unsophisticated tribes could be helped by advanced souls who in carnated among them and taught them the elements of the arts and sciences . In every tradition that has cOme down to us from an tiquity a Golden Age is spoken of the Gar den o i d in i E en the B ble and , although in some cases this unmistakably refers to the F ALL OF A TLANTIS 79

r Fi st, Second , and the early Third Races , when rudimentary mankind had not fallen in to materiality, it may generally be taken to mean the Dawn of the Fifth when mankind

r was again compa atively pure and happy, and

- was guided by semi divine kings , Adepts of a wisdom and comp ssion . In Egypt the tradi tions’ of many dynasties of gods and heroes were recorded by Manetho, and have actually s o f come down to us , though the list names have been mutilated . While no doubt the de a G Hindfi t ils of the reek, , Egyptian , Central American and Scandinavian cosmogonies and pr1 mitive histories of mankind are largely al le orical eneral g , their g agreement is not due n to chance . Those who have give Theosophy to the world possess definite information that there was a time of spiritual brightness before r and ordina y history begins , that it could truly G A e r be called a olden g . By deg ees the same old process of materializing came into action ; “ i and as the family races , or smaller d vis

O i sub - ff ions the races , di erentiated into the of nations the later ages , we arrive at his so SONS OF THE F IREM IST

toric and present times , with the numerous re re red, yellow, brown , black, and white p sentatives of thecomplex developments of the great evolutionary process of human expan

sion . Although we have descended into an age of moral and spiritual darkness (not in tellectual) as compared with the Golden Ages it must not be forgotten that in the great jour ‘ ney of the soul from Spiritual conditions through the material and back to a higher i point, it is subject to a continual ser es of s and maller cyclic ups downs , and that even in the darkest time necessary experience is be

ing gained . As we have long since passed the r densest materiality of the Fourth Race, eve y

r a i i step onwa ds is le d ng to higher condit ons , and although the Road seems to cross many a e hill and d scend into dark valleys , its general i tendency s upwards all the time .

82 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T and a most beautiful one from the very beginning h in u i was h n o f t eir tellect al l fe. It t e Golde “ l h h n he Age in those days o f o d, t e age w e t gods h n mi r i h h mor walked the eart , a d xed f eely w t t e h A n n h r r n tal s It was t e tla tea s, t e fi st p oge y of semi- divine man after his separation into sexes

hence the first- begotten aad humanly- bo rn mor — tals who became the first Sacrificers to the

t er - god ofma t . They stand in the far away dim past, h i n in ages more than pre istor c, as the fi rst a thropomorphists who worshiped form and matter. That worship degenerated very soon into self hi h l h h i h wors p, t ence ed to p allicism, or t at wh c reigns supreme to this day in the symbolisms of i i n ri u m n every exoteric rel g o of t al, dog a, a d

The Secret Doctrine But, as the writer of says elsewhere ,

A phallic worship has developed only with the gradual loss O f the keys to the inner meanings of i i u rel g o s symbols,

da and there was a y when religions were pure . w e After the destruction of Atlantis , a few is guides who carried on the knowledge of the past and reincarnated time after time for the h in the hi - r Out elp g of new c ld ace , brought the

The ecret D octrine vol e 272- 3 . a s S , II, p g . ORIGIN OF RELIGIONS 83

’ facts as to man s real nature and his relation

to Go d in m r ship his (inner) , sy bolic ce emony and definite illustration in the teaching of the

The Hindii s ances Mysteries . Aryan , whose tors were among the early descendants of the

- first sub race of the Fifth , have preserved in their Scriptures the clearest records O f the primitive wisdom ; but after all, even these are so bewilderingly confused and full of ” for for blinds , which the key has been lost ( thepublic) that they are all but a sealed book to not exce tin r modern readers , p g the lea ned r O f U s Sansk itists the Western niversitie . But h the last quarter of the Nineteent century, the period when Materialism was attempting to t crush the belief in any hing spiritual, was chosen by Those who are watching every movement O f human thought and action and who are the Guardians of the primeval Wis dom- i Religion , Theosophy, n its purity, to give out a few facts showing that there was a N W DG and r primitive K O LE E, that all mode n of i a systems relig on are modific tions , perver or of sions , merely fractions it. Although 84 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

that which has been given out is only a has glimpse , it placed students in such a posi tion that when the time ripens they will be

prepared to receive fuller light. This idea of there being truth and real knowledge in the earliest forms of religion is

r r new to the scientific investigato . The favo ite hypothesis of the day (putting aside the crude literal interpretation of the biblical Gen

i r es s , which has been abandoned by nea ly everyone capable o f understanding the value o f evidence) is that every religious concept can be traced back to absurd myths of primi tive savages living a few thousand years ago ; and that modern savages provide perfect illus t rations of the state O f primitive man in reli gions views as well as in their intellectual ffi development , and that given su cient time the savage races would develop civilizations

of a high order , and religions as good as those o f today . Theosophists have always contended that hi h r t s ypothesis is not in acco d with the facts . The lowest savages are mostly decaying relics

MAN AND THE ANTHROPOID APES

TURNING for a moment to the question of the origin of the anthropoid apes

- a the gorilla, chimpanzee , orang ut ng, and gib bon the fundamental distinction between the attitude of Theosophy and that of Materialism

is r f well ma ked . Instead o being a mere animal with a highly developed brain secre ” or o be ting mind thought, the s ul thus in a o f b - g simple function matter, a y product , perishing at death like music when the harp is broken Theosophy teaches that the real ” man - is a fallen god, a self conscious being who has been immortal in the past as he will be in the future The Monads of many of the animal races which strongly resemble man

n the otentialities i bodily structure , possess p O f the i de h ghest velopment , but these are still

as NO ho s ho rus no thou ht M oles h p p , g , c ott. M AN AND THE APES 87

for n latent, they have not bee awakened by of the incarnation the spark of godlike Mind . The possession of the higher Self- cons cious ness as r r incom , though yet in t uth in a ve y l i h t mak s m m T ete s w a e an a an. o p degree, derive human conscience and human intellect from the brain- faculties or instinctual mind of a o f the anim ls by Natural Selection , Survival t e o Fi test, etc . , as the only caus s there f, would be as hopeless a problem as to make a per petual motion machine for something cannot n hm be produced from ot g. The animal Mon ads aregetting necessary experience in physi t cal life, and in some fu ure age the divine Mind- Egos now incarnated in our human forms will project the spark to arouse the latent fires in thelower lives ; then those ani mal- a - Monads will h ve become human Monads .

. v H . P Bla atsky spoke in severe condemnation of the belittling of human nature with its essentially divine attributes (however degraded c and obs ured) by modern speculation , which tries to reduce the activity of the mighty and awe- inspiring divine Ego overshadowing each 88 SONS OF THE FIREM IS T human bein the d ful nd te us g, won er a mys rio r ar a in to a m e u o f the einc n t g Self, er f nction brain o f a creature supposed to be but the advanced product of a hairy quadrumanous a ncestor. Wh then is the n of t o o at, , origi the an hr p id es lava s c s hem as ap ? H. P. B t ky all t a b tard b ranch grafted on the original stock of hu m mo a est of man anity. The com n nc or and the anthropoids was n e Round not R dista t ag . In the Third ( ace) , M i u the human onad , in build ng aro nd itself changeful and varying forms of an ethereal n a t one a a d ephemer l na ure, at period dopted that Of an ape- like form (but it was not an a e man there were no a es then p , but p ) , a form which was copied and humanized for ’ man s habitation again in the denser condi tions of the earlier part of the Third Raceo f the F ourth Rou nd; for each Round in the descending order repeats the previous experi r ence , but in more mate ial substance . This was before the full descent of the M i masa theH and t putras, igher Egos ; his early race Of

90 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

first found and then presented by Science to think ing and reasoning humanity beforeit would abandon belief in gods and the immortal Soul for the wor ‘ hi f u u nce s p o Q adr manic a stors.

A remarkable corroboration of the early connexion between humanity and the four s of o pecies anthrop ids mentioned above , which are said in the Esoteric Philosophy to owe t i to man t e heir orig n , has been discovered centl r s of y in ce tain test their blood . The injection of a serum proved that the blood o f the four anthropoids reacted in the same man ner of mon as human blood , while that other ff keys behaved di erently under the same tests. Another significant observation supporting theTheosophical teaching that man is not de m in rived from an ani al ancestry, is that an v erse order exists in the brain of the anthro t poid apes when compared wi h man . In the apes the middle convolutions of the brain ap pear before those of the frontal lobe (the lat ter supposed to be the instrument of the higher me ntal activities) , but in man the frontal con

The ecret D trine 1 oc vol. 1 661 S , , page . M AN AND THE APES 91

i r the volut ons are fo med first . As anthropoids are the descendants of man and some extinct species of mammals which lived in the Meio cene age, and as the animal side is still pre o in t of d minant hem, the development the brain in the above order is what might be x e e p cted from the Theosophical standpoint. Two or three years ago a fossil jaw of an ex tinct kind of chimpanzee was discovered in

N - d i orth Western In ia, hav ng characteristics far more human than the present representa tives h no possess, showing that there asbeen the m advance towards hu an type . a i of Th e ret Doc Then ag in, the wr ter eS c trine s of : says , peaking man

Hi in in i s tellect develops and creases w th age, whilehis facial bones and j aws diminish and straight h en, t us being moreand morespiritualized : whereas i h h i h r w t t e ape t is t e everse. In its youth the anthro i is far m r inte i n n - po d o e ll ge t a d good natured , hi i h i m u w le w t age t beco es d ller; and, as its skull r n im i i ecedes a d seems to d inish as it grows, ts fac al i in bones and j aws develop, the bra n be g finally crushed, and thrown entirely back, to make with a r m for e anim e h every d y more oo th al typ . T e 92 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T — organ of thought the brain recedes and dimin sh s i e , entirely conquered and replaced by that o f th wi eas th aw ara u n e ld b t e j app t s. Owi g to the very type of his development man cannot de scend from either an ape or an ancestor com i mon to both, but shows h s origin from a type far superior to himself. On the other hand, the

- pithecoids, the orang outang, the gorilla, and the i n h c ch mpanzee ca , and, as t e O cult Sciences teach, iz um do, descend from the animal ed F ourth h an

- h Root Race, being t e product of man and an ex tinct species of mammal whose remote ancestors were themselves the product of Lemurian bestiality “ which lived in the M eiocene age! Much more might be said upon this crucial of subject but for exigencies space . The stu dent will find the subject very fully treated in Do t ine TheSecret c r .

D n 1 - The Secret octri e, vol. 1 , pages 682 3 .

94 SONS OF THE F IREM IST gion are based can be traced back into the of to c night Time, and, according the re ords of the Custodians of the ancient Wisdom (Theosophy) they were first o f all produced by Initiates to contain the tru th in a form capable of being understood to some extent

the r u by ordinary mind . Those p operly q ali fied th dee er meanin s were taught e p g . These forms of faith were gradually cor ru ted t t e- te p , until it became necessary o sta the same truths in slightly modified fashion for the better comprehension o f the newly t rising nations . It would be preposterous o suppose primitive savages capable of inventing myths containing the profound wisdom which is hidden just beneath the surface o f the sacred to o f beliefs . As if prove the knowledge their

of - ta framers , most the world scriptures con in

“ distinct allusions to the Rounds and Races t and wi h their destructions regenerations, and in some cases so clearly that they can easily be traced by anyone who holds the clue given b h s h y T eo op y . The positive teachings of Theosophy con F UTURE OF HUM ANITY 95 cerning the origins of mankind and of religion “ “ show that the primitive savage and ani ” mistic hypotheses are er roneous and incom lete t ten p , quite apart from heir materializing d n ec z i e cy. These theories r ogni e noth ng but

t t - son the lower mind , the ego is ic brain per ality , to and the animal instincts . In trying trace the development of man and the origins of the of t higher attributes the soul, scien ific Anthropology is blocked by its disregard of the o the or Reincarnating Eg , Higher Mind M ones of , which the lower is but the shadow o r a i -to em nat on, hardly be separated from the i i ‘ an mal nature . Scientific wr ters apparent ly laboring under the hypnotic weight o f the 4 B c i e a of 0 04 . . t famous d te , the theolog cal da “ ” o f the creation have also erred in limit ing the duration of the human period to a and not reco niz few thousands of years , in g ing the existence of the pre- historic civiliza t ions . The presence of advanced Egos from previous manvantaras guiding the race at all m ti es is unknown to them even as a theory . The only “primitive man” deserving the title 96 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T was the rudimentary or incomplete man o f the earlier Rounds and also of the pre - Lemur r ff r th ian age . He was ve y di erent f om e

S - who n tone Age type , was a true man , eve if degraded . That religion is a sirnple brain mind production derived from observation of

r o the natu al phen mena of the Seasons , the

Weather, etc . , and that belief in the existence of the soul came from the childish imagina tion o f savage men that dreams are real ex eriences p , are suggestions which materialistic bias has rendered plausible to the scientific

' r of ff uncon spi it the age , which still su ers sciously to itself from the strong reaction against the irrational dogmas of scholastic i r theology . Scient fic esearch has done excel lent service in freeing millions from degrad ing servitude to the tyranny of bigoted eccles iasti i m c s and superstition , but when it tries to prove that there is no spiritual foun t and i da ion for religion , that man , in see ng a divine consciousness at work in himself and in Nature has been the dupe of his imagina i it is i h t on , t me to call a alt . The material

98 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

has no It is a long lane that turning, and it is worthy of note that an uneasiness is grow ing in high intellectual quarters as to the accuracy of the orthodox scientific theory o f n religious evolution, and that an interpretatio more in harmony with Theosophical teaching has been forced upon at least one scientific man of the first rank by the stern logic o f ir ex facts . Professor S W . M . Ramsay presses the popular theory as follows

The modern method is based on the assumption that there takes place normally a continuous devel

in i i i h h n n i i iz opment rel g on, n t oug t, a d i c v l ation, since primitive times ; that such a development has been practically universal among the more civilized races ; that as to certain less civilized races either

r r they have remained stationary, or p og ess among them has been abnormally slow ; that the primitive r i i el g on is barbarous, savage, bloodthirsty, and low in h i i iz i n an ha he ine t e scale o f c v l at o , d t t t l o f r growth normally is toward the milde , the more gracious and the nobler forms o f religion ; that the p rimitive types of religion can be recovered by h studying the savage of the present day, and t at the o e sa a i h m rimi l w st v ge s t e ost p tive.

Contem orar Review 1 9 7 p y , 0 , London. F UTURE OF HUM ANITY 99

Instead of finding that a dispassionate ex r i amination of the facts suppo ts this posit on , the Professor says the reverse is the case :

W r n i i h h r r x e hereve evide ce ex sts, w t t e a est e c p

n r i i n hi or tio s, thehisto y of rel g o among men is a st y o f degeneration ; and the development of a few Western nations in inventions and in civilization du ring recent centuries should not blind us to the fact that among the vast maj ority o f nations the history of manners and civilization is a story o f en r n W r fin i h deg e atio . he ever you d a relig on t at r fi h grows purer and loftie , you nd the prophet, t e h h thinker, the teac er, who is in sympathy wit the D in iv e, and he tells you he is speaking the message

n Ar h ro h ts o f Go d, ot his own message. e t ese p p e all impostors and deceivers ? or do they speak the

ri h truth, and need only to have their words g tly, h h im i . e. sympat etically understood ? T e pr itive h savage, w o develops naturally out of the stage of Totemism into thewisdom of Sophocles and Socrates i s un n m I fin n n k own to e. d othi g even remotely resem in hi n th sa a e r bl g m i e v g s o f mode n times. I was forced by the evidence to the view that degeneration is the outstanding fact in religious history and that the modern theory often takes the last products of degeneration as the facts of primi i n tive relig o . It! ) SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

Space will not permit further quotation of similar passages which express more or less closely what Theosophists have been teaching for in more than a quarter of a century past, face of the strongest opposition from material ism and conventional orthodoxy . The pro ” the n phet, thi ker , the teacher, referred to ” who i D above , is in sympathy w th the ivine , reminds us of the Theosophical teaching that there have always been such advanced souls r m in the van of prog ess , giving ankind the exact kind of spi ritual food it could assimi late at the time, and also protecting it from the i ad ev ls that constantly threaten it . These vanced souls have never been absent ; they n t t n wn are o wan ing today, although not k o to m s the world . The odern savage is the flot am and jetsam of past greatness ; and our civil ized races that now pride themselves upon t their high culture , will , when heir race is run , vegetate, degenerate , and die out in future ages , like the natives of Tasmania have in our i the in t me , for this is law . The Egos now hab iting the bodies of the most advanced races

1 02 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

ub - c s Bu h la t r n n enth s ra e . t t e s em a ts o f the F ifth Continent will not disappear until some time after r h h new M n i the bi t of t e Race. a k nd will not grow again into giant bodies as in the case o f the Lemurians and the Atlanteans ; because while the evolution of the F ourth race led the latter down to the very bottom of materiality in its physical de

e10 men th res n Rac is n i n in r v p t, ep e t e o ts asce d g a c ; and the Sixth will be rapidly growing out of its of r n n fl ‘ bonds matte , a d eve of esh. As in the earlier Rounds the Monad was assimilating the various principles in very shadowy and ethereal vehicles ; and as in this Round the Desire- principle is dominant ; so

in the next (Fifth) Round , fully developed a i Reason , the Higher M nas c principle in each man s , must fully conquer the pa sional nature

or r in i the great pilg image will have been va n , and it will have to return to the crucible of

i r ex stence to start afresh at some futu e time . The M ahatma is one who has pushed so far ahead of the obstacles that impede the aver age man that he may justly be called a Sixth n ein who be Rou d b g, one has safely passed

The ecret D octrine v l 1 1 o . a 444 S , , p ge F UTURE OF HUM ANITY 1 03 yond that supreme danger point which will meet humanity as a whole during the Fifth ” Round, called the final moment of choice . i to l This crit cal period has be faced, but it wil only prove fatal to that portion of mankind which persists in the egotism of personal self shn ss o f i e . An individual may lose the bliss one r Devachanic b o more interludes , the eav enly states between one life on earth and an

a - t other, by mis spent life, for the reason tha there is nothing in that life to provide material for theDevachanic experiences ; but the Law as is just beyond human understanding, and there are many lives in which to remedy past the the s errors , great majority of race will pas on in safety to a transcendentally glorious

r futu e . Eye hath not seen , nor ear heard , neither have entered into the heart of man , the things which God hath prepared for them ” that love him . But the preparation for this great end must be ceaseless struggle against the passional na r tu e now so strongly entrenched within us , and Those who really belong to the Fifth and 1 04 SONS OF THE F IREM IS T

x who and Com Si th Rounds, are Wisdom or t the Div passion embodied , are w king wi h ine Law and giving continual though unseen h to elp their brothers , the other struggling fragments of humanity making their way up i f M not to theweary h ll o life . ankind is left w too oa to ander far from the r d safety. The ” of a s of sefi sense sep ratene ss , personal l sh isolation and indifference to the welfare of ” the of our rest humanity, other selves, is the only heresy recognized in Theosophy, but it is a deadly one and indeed prevalent ; the spread of true knowledge and practice o f T b rotherhood is the only remedy . o do this ff u e ect ally, which is the object that all the a f h d for great Te chers o humanity ave live , was the aim in starting the Theosophical So ciety to meet and guide the conditions of the of s New Order the Age . This Movement, established on unsectarian lines , and supported b y Those who have real knowledge not mere — inference of the history of the past and of ’ s n m man real ature , is a unique pheno enon in m de o rn times . The opportunity offered to

There is no Religion Higher than Truth 0 :l) e “ anth ersal B rotherhooh ann fltb eosopb tcal é octetr

Established for thebenefit of thepeopleoftheearth 6 ' all creatures

OBJECTS This BROTHERHOOD is part of a great and uni i h in versal movement wh ch as been active all ages. This Organization declares that B rotherhood is a I rinci a ur o i ea h ro herh o fact. ts p p l p p se s to t c B t o d, demonstrate that it is a fact in nature and make it a living power in the life of humanity. Its subsidiary purpose is to study ancient and i n modern rel gio s, science, philosophy and art ; to investigatethelaws of nature and thedivinepowers in man.

s: e at

' n n n THE UNIVERSAL Bnor m oo AND Tnmsormcu . OC TY H S IE , founded by . P. Blavatsky at New York, 1 875 n r h r a r h , co tinued afte e de th unde t e leader

- Wi ia ship of the cc founder, ll m Q . Judge, and now n h f h ir u der t e leadership o t e successor, Katherine Tin h i H uar r n gley, as ts eadq te s at the I ternational h i T eosophical Center, Point Lorna, Cal fornia. This Organization is not in any way connected with nor does it endorse any other societies using the name of Th h eosop y. THE UNIVERSAL Baornm oon AND THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY welcomes to membership all who truly love their fellow men and desire the eradication of the evils caused by the barriers of race, creed, caste or hi i um color, w ch have so long mpeded h an progress ; to all sincere lovers of truth and to all who aspire to higher and better things than the mere pleasures and interests of a worldly life, and are prepared to do all in their power to make Brotherhood a living r i r enegy in the l fe of humanity, its various depa t n f u me ts o fer unlimited opport nities. The wholework of the Organization is under the ir h fi d ection of t eLeader and Of cial Head, Katherine i u in h n i u i n T ngley, as o tl ed in t e Co st t t o .

Do Not Fail to Profit by the Following It is a regrettable fact that many people use the name of Theosophy and of our Organization for

- in e s h f H a h self t rest, as al o t at o . P. Bl vatsky, t e

F oundress, to attract attention to themselves and to ain u i u o h h in n g p bl c s pp rt. T is t ey do private a d u i h p bl c speec and in publications, also by lecturing h h i throug out t e country. Without beng in any way connected with the UNIVERSAL Bnornmnoon m T EO OP C L SOC TY in man a s h rmi i H S HI A IE , y c se t ey pe t t o b in rr ha h r h t e fe ed t t t ey a e, t us misleading thepub n lic, a d many honest inquirers are hence led away rom th ru h of Th o h n H f et t s eos p y as prese ted by . P. a ats n her r i n Bl v ky a d successo s, W lliam Q . Judge a d Kather n in r i eT gley, and p actically exemplified in their Th o o hica f u i in e s p l work or the pl ft g of humanity. The International Brotherhood League F ounded in l 897 by Katherine Tingley

ITS OBJECTS ARE

1 . To help men and women to realizethenobility i i of their calling and ther truepos tion in life.

u hi r l t 2. TO ed cate c ld en of al na ions on the n broadest lines of U iversal Brotherhood, and to prepare destitute and homeless children to become r hum workers fo anity.

i h i i f r 3 . To amel orate t e cond t on o unfo tunate n i h i women, a d ass st t em to a higher l fe. 4 r . To assist those who a e, or have been, in r p isons, to establish themselves in honorable posi tions in life.

T a ish i unishm 5. o bol cap tal p ent.

rin ou a ter un rs an in n 6. To b g ab t bet de t d g betwee

- so called savage and civilized races, by promoting a closer and more sympathetic relationship between m the .

ff rin r i r 7. To relieve human su e g esult ng f om fl min r o h r ca amities n ood, fa e, wa , and t e l ; and, ge er n i co o ff ally, to exte d a d, help and mf rt to su ering ni hr h r huma ty t oughout t ewo ld .

F or further information regarding the above r Notices, add ess KATHERINE TINGLEY I TER T O L THEOSOPIIICA H D U RT R N NA I NA L EA Q A E S, PoIN'r n Lo a, CALIFOl NIA

AND Tam

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