The Path of the Eternal Pilgrim A Collation from The Secret Doctrine on the genesis of the Earth and Mankind

Transcription

1 The Path of the Eternal Pilgrim A Collation from The Secret Doctrine on the genesis of the Earth and Mankind By a Student

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3 The Path of the Eternal Pilgrim A Collation from The Secret Doctrine on the genesis of the Earth and Mankind By a Student

4 First edition 2013 Published by The European School of Theosophy The European School of Theosophy

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. SOME FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS... 1 II. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH Each planet is a chain composed of seven globes The Mazdean view on the sevenfold constitution of the Earth The Planetary Spirit of our Globe and other Planets The principles of planet Earth (Globe D)...12 III. THE REBIRTH OF THE EARTH Each planetary chain is a reincarnation of a lower planetary chain The Days and Nights of Planets On manvantaras and Manus Planet Earth is a reincarnation of the Moon A description of the genesis of the Earth Chain What are the laya-centres on which the planet is built? Fohat guides the transfer of the energies from one planet to another...21 IV. ROUNDS AND THEIR MAIN CHARACTERISTICS Planetary life proceeds in seven Rounds What is a Round? Each Round is guided and built by various Dhyan Chohans Rounds, globes and their Manus Each Round is a progressive repetition of a former Round Rounds and the genesis of the Elements Evolution of Elements and physical senses on this Globe D Rounds and the genesis of Man The Fourth Round on the Fourth Globe is the crucial mid-point of evolution Fifth and Sixth Rounders...37

6 vi THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM V. THE SEVEN KINGDOMS AND THEIR EVOLUTION ON EARTH There are seven kingdoms The kingdoms represent different stages of evolution The order of appearance of the kingdoms on the Earth...45 VI. THE EX-LUNAR MONADS: THEIR CLASSIFICATION AND PROGRESS ON EARTH First things first: what is a monad? The Monads are Rays of the Dhyani Buddhas: they are spiritual individualities Relationship between the Universal Monad, Cosmic Monads and the human monads The hosts of monads are limited The lunar monads are divided into seven hierarchies The order of appearance of the lunar monads on Earth The seven hierarchies of lunar monads are divided into three great classes The lunar monads and their different stages of development in the first three and a half Rounds The progress of lunar monads through the kingdoms during the first three and a half Rounds Reaching the midpoint of evolution...72 VII. THE THREEFOLD SCHEME OF EVOLUTION...75 VIII. NATURE S OR EARTH S UNAIDED ATTEMPT TO CREATE MAN FAILS...77 IX. THE PROGENITORS OF MANKIND: SOME BASIC IDEAS Man is not only a product of material evolution There are twelve classes of creators but only seven of them are the fathers or pitris of man The seven classes are divided into two distinct kinds: four rupic or corporeal Barhishad and three arupic or incorporeal Agnishwatta...82

7 CONTENTS vii 4. The Barhishad have creative physical fire and the Agnishwatta have creative spiritual fire The Barhishads are Lunar Pitris and the Agnishwattas are Solar Pitris Solar Pitris belong to the Fifth and Lunar Pitris belong to the Sixth hierarchy of Creative Powers Most of the Agnishwatta incarnated as the Egos of mankind There seem to be at least four, if not seven (and not only three) classes of arupa angels The correspondence between the Pitris and the human heart...92 X. THE LUNAR PITRIS AND THE CREATION OF ASTRAL-PHYSICAL MANKIND...93 [The physical scheme of evolution] 1. The Lunar Pitris are the most developed lunar monads The Lunar Pitris evolve the chhayas and thus bring forth the first Human Root-Race The chhaya-birth takes place on seven portions of the first continent A more detailed explanation of the chhaya-birth The First Root Race was composed of the astral shadows of the Lunar Pitris and these chhayas are in their turn absorbed into the Second Root Race What happened with the Lunar Pitris? The Lunar Pitris are the formative powers during the first three and a half Root Races XI. THE SOLAR PITRIS AND THE GRADUAL AWAKENING OF MANAS [The intellectual scheme of evolution] 1. The Solar Pitris refuse to build physical man: they endow him with mind...105

8 viii THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM 2. The incarnation process is gradual and differs with the grade of development of the vehicles and with the status of the Solar Pitris themselves Incarnation process had already started in the First and Second Root Race The Kumaras (Rudras or Maruts) are the highest class of Solar Pitris Some Solar Pitris, i.e. the Kumaras, are Nirmanakyas from other Manvantaras Some Solar Pitris were returing Nirvanees (Pratyeka Buddhas?) Some Solar Pitris were Failures Differences in men The sons of Kriyasakti and the descent of The Great Sacrifice (The Silent Watcher) The abuse of the creative powers...127

9 PRELIMINARY MEDITATION Lead the life necessary for the acquisition of such knowledge and powers, and Wisdom will come to you naturally. Whenever you are able to attune your consciousness to any of the seven chords of Universal Consciousness, those chords that run along the sounding-board of Kosmos, vibrating from one Eternity to another; when you have studied thoroughly the music of the Spheres, then only will you become quite free to share your knowledge with those with whom it is safe to do so. Meanwhile be prudent... (The Master s words, SD I 167) Outside of metaphysics no occult philosophy, no esotericism is possible. (SD I 169)

10 x THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM List of abbreviations SD: TBL: TG: ML: The Secret Doctrine, Volumes I and II. H.P. Blavatsky. The Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge. H.P. Blavatsky. The Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, The Theosophical Glossary. H.P. Blavatsky. The Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnet from the Mahatmas M. & K.H. A.T. Barker. Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers, New York, Ocean: The Ocean of Theosophy. W.Q. Judge. The Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, Symbols used [ ] Between square brackets only the compiler s comments and thoughts are given, not original teachings. Therefore they should be taken for what they are worth and be used with the utmost care. Words and sections in capitals or bold and italic type are as they appear in the original text, as are differences or apparent inconsistencies in spellings.

11 1 I. SOME FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS For the benefit of those who may not have read, or, if they have, may not have clearly understood, in Theosophical writings, the doctrine of the septenary chains of worlds in the Solar Kosmos, the teaching is briefly thus: 1. Everything in the metaphysical as in the physical Universe is septenary. Hence every sidereal body, every planet, whether visible or invisible, is credited with six companion globes. The evolution of life proceeds on these seven globes or bodies from the 1st to the 7th in Seven Rounds or Seven Cycles. 2. These globes are formed by a process which the Occultists call the rebirth of planetary chains (or rings). When the seventh and last Round of one of such rings has been entered upon, the highest or first globe A, followed by all the others down to the last, instead of entering upon a certain time of rest or obscuration, as in their previous Rounds begins to die out. The planetary dissolution (pralaya) is at hand, and its hour has struck; each globe has to transfer its life and energy to another planet. 3. Our Earth, as the visible representative of its invisible superior fellow globes, its lords or principles, has to live, as have the others, through seven Rounds. During the first three, it forms and consolidates; during the fourth it settles and hardens; during the last three it gradually returns to its first ethereal form: it is spiritualised, so to say. 4. Its Humanity develops fully only in the Fourth our present Round. Up to this fourth Life-Cycle, it is referred to as humanity only for lack of a more appropriate term. Like the grub which becomes chrysalis and butterfly, Man, or rather that which becomes man, passes through all the forms and kingdoms during the first Round and through all the human shapes during the two following Rounds. Arrived on 1

12 2 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM our Earth at the commencement of the Fourth in the present series of life-cycles and races, man is the first form that appears thereon, being preceded only by the mineral and vegetable kingdoms even the latter having to develop and continue its further evolution through man. [...] During the three Rounds to come, Humanity, like the globe on which it lives, will be ever tending to reassume its primeval form, that of a Dhyan Chohanic Host. Man tends to become a God [Dhyan Chohan] and then God, like every other atom in the Universe. Beginning so early as with the 2nd round, Evolution proceeds already on quite a different plan. It is only during the 1st round that (heavenly) man [the lunar Chohans or Pitris, the first class of lunar monads] becomes a human being on globe A (rebecomes) a mineral, a plant, an animal, on globe B and C, etc. The process changes entirely from the second round but you have learned prudence... and I advise you to say nothing before the time for saying it has come... (Extract from the Teacher s letters on various topics.) (SD I ) [Note: the change of process in round 2 is not difficult to understand if one comprehends the purpose of the first round. In the first round the globes and/or kingdoms have to be formed by the incoming life-wave(s) in their first rudimentary form. At the end of the first round this is completed: the framework is done, the houses in their prototypal stage are ready: the different classes of evolving monads, who constitute the life-wave as a whole, do not have to start de novo, but re-enter immediately their respective kingdoms, and complete the first sketch they themselves have formed. Now starting with the second round the process of material consolidation, concretion and differentiation may begin, a process which will end in the Fourth Round on globe D. So, it becomes quite clear that Man (meaning here the highest class of lunar monads, the Pitris who lead the human element in the second and third Round and will give chhayas in the Fourth Round) enters in the second round again the human stage, which it had formed in the first round. This monadic class doesn t have to go again through the lower kingdoms: it had already reached human form-stage in the first round. Also the other lunar monads enter their respective kingdoms without going through lower ones, as will be illustrated later.]

13 I. SOME FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS 3 5. Every life-cycle on Globe D (our Earth) is composed of seven root-races. They commence with the Ethereal and end with the spiritual on the double line of physical and moral evolution from the beginning of the terrestrial round to its close. (One is a planetary round from Globe A to Globe G, the seventh; the other, the globe round, or the terrestrial). [Note: a globe or terrestrial round is a life-cycle of 7 root-races on a certain globe; in other words a round of the monadic life-wave on one of the seven globes: there are thus 7 globe rounds in each planetary round. A globe-round may also be called a globe-manvantara.] 6. The first root-race, i.e., the first men on earth (irrespective of form) were the progeny of the celestial men, called rightly in Indian philosophy the Lunar Ancestors or the Pitris, of which there are seven classes or Hierarchies. (SD I 160) As regards the evolution of mankind, the Secret Doctrine postulates three new propositions, which stand in direct antagonism to modern science as well as to current religious dogmas: it teaches (a) the simultaneous evolution of seven human groups on seven different portions of our globe; (b) the birth of the astral, before the physical body: the former being a model for the latter; and (c) that man, in this Round, preceded every mammalian the anthropoids included in the animal kingdom. (SD II 1)

14 4 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM * The Arupa or formless, there where form ceases to exist, on the objective plane. The word Archetypal must not be taken here in the sense that the Platonists gave to it, i.e., the world as it existed in the Mind of the Deity; but in that of a world made as a first model, to be followed and improved upon by the worlds which succeed it physically though deteriorating in purity. These are the four lower planes of Cosmic Consciousness, the three higher planes being inaccessible to human intellect as developed at present. The seven states of human consciousness pertain to quite another question.

15 5 II. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 1. Each planet is a chain composed of seven globes [T]he one eternal Law unfolds everything in the (to be) manifested Nature on a sevenfold principle; among the rest, the countless circular chains of worlds, composed of seven globes, graduated on the four lower planes of the world of formation (the three others belonging to the Archetypal Universe). Out of these seven only one, the lowest and the most material of those globes, is within our plane or means of perception, the six others lying outside of it and being therefore invisible to the terrestrial eye. (SD I 152) Our Globe [the grossest physical Globe or Globe D], as taught from the first, is at the bottom of the arc of descent, where the matter of our perceptions exhibits itself in its grossest form Hence it only stands to reason that the globes which overshadow our Earth must be on different and superior planes. In short, as Globes, they are in co-adunition but not in consubstantiality with our earth and thus pertain to quite another state of consciousness. Our planet (like all those we see) is adapted to the peculiar state of its human stock, that state which enables us to see with our naked eye the sidereal bodies which are co-essential with our terrene plane and substance, just as their respective inhabitants, the Jovians, Martians and others can perceive our little world: because our planes of consciousness, differing as they do in degree but being the same in kind, are on the same layer of differentiated matter..... (SD I 166) The Earth is sevenfold. It is an entity and not a mere lump of gross matter. And being thus an entity of a septenary nature there must be six other globes which roll with it in space. This company of seven globes has been called the Earth Chain, the Planetary 5

16 6 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM Chain. [ ] The earth is one of seven globes, in respect to man s consciousness only, because when he functions on one of the seven he perceives it as a distinct globe and does not see the other six. This is in perfect correspondence with man himself who has six other constituents of which only the gross body is visible to him because he is now functioning on the Earth or the fourth globe and his body represents the Earth. The whole seven globes constitute one single mass or great globe and they all interpenetrate each other. But we have to say globe, because the ultimate shape is globular or spherical. If one relies too closely on the explanation made by Mr. Sinnett it might be supposed that the globes did not interpenetrate each other but were connected by currents or lines of magnetic force. And if too close attention is paid to the diagrams used in the Secret Doctrine to illustrate the scheme, without paying due regard to the explanations and cautions given by H. P. Blavatsky, the same error may be made. But both she and her Adept teachers say, that the seven globes of our chain are in coadunition with each other but not in consubstantiality. (Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 166, first edition.) This is further enforced by cautions not to rely on statistics or plane surface diagrams, but to look at the metaphysical and spiritual aspect of the theory as stated in English. Thus from the very source of Mr. Sinnett s book we have the statement, that these globes are united in one mass though differing from each other in substance, and that this difference of substance is due to change of center of consciousness. (Ocean 23-24) 2. The Mazdean view on the sevenfold constitution of the Earth It was mentioned elsewhere that the belief in the septenary constitution of our chain was the oldest tenet of the early Iranians, who got it from the first Zarathustra. It is time to prove it to those Parsis who have lost the key to the meaning of their Scriptures. In the Avesta the earth is considered septempartite and tripartite at one and the same time. This is regarded by Dr. Geiger, as an incongruity, for the following reasons, which he calls discrepancies: the Avesta speaks of the three-thirds of the earth because the Rig-Veda

17 II. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 7 mentions three earths..... Three strata or layers, one lying above the other, are said to be meant by this. But he is quite mistaken, as are all exoteric profane translators. The Avesta has not borrowed the idea from the Rig-Veda, but simply repeats the esoteric teaching. The three strata or layers do not refer to our globe alone, but to three layers of the globes of our terrestrial chain two by two, on each plane, one on the descending, the other on the ascending arc. Thus, with reference to the six spheres or globes above our earth, the seventh and the fourth, it is septempartite, while with regard to the planes over our plane it is tripartite. This meaning is carried out and corroborated by the text in the Avesta and Vendidad, and even by the speculations a most laborious and unsatisfactory guess-work of the translators and commentators. It thus follows that the division of the earth, or rather the earth s chain, into seven Karshvars is not in contradiction with the three zones, if this word is read planes. As Geiger remarks, this septenary division is very old the oldest of all since the Gathas already speak of the septempartite earth. (Bumi haptaiti, Yasna, xxxii., 3.) For, according to the Parsee Scriptures, the seven Karshvars are to be considered as completely disconnected parts of the earth, which they surely are. For, between them there flows the Ocean, so that it is impossible, as stated in several passages, to pass from one Karshvar to another. The Ocean is space, of course, for the latter was called Waters of Space before it was known as Ether. Moreover, the word Karshvar is consistently rendered by Dwipa, and especially Qaniratha by Jambudwipa ( Neriosengh, the translator of the Yasna. ) But this fact is not taken into account by the Orientalists, and therefore we find even such a learned Zoroastrian and Parsi by birth as the translator of Dr. Geiger s work passing unnoticed and without a word of comment sundry remarks of the former on the incongruities of this kind abounding in the Mazdean Scriptures. One of such incongruities and coincidences concerns the similarity of the Zoroastrian with the Indian tenet with regard to the seven Dwipas (islands, or continents, rather) as met with in the Puranas, namely: The Dwipas form concentric rings, which, separated by the ocean, surround Jambu Dvipa, which is situated in the centre (p. 130, vol. I.), and, according to the Iranian view, the Karshvar Qaniratha is likewise situated in the centre of the rest....

18 8 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM each of them (the other six Karshvars) is a peculiar individual space, and so they group themselves round (above) Qaniratha (Ibid. p. 131). Now Qaniratha is not, as believed by Geiger and his translator, the country inhabited by the Iranian tribes, and the other names do not mean the adjacent territories of foreign nations in the North, South, West, and East (p. 132), but our globe or Earth. For that which is meant by the sentence which follows the last quoted, namely, that two Vorubarshti and Voru-Zarshti lie in the North; two, Vidadhafshu and Tradadhafshu, in the South; Savahi and Arzahi in the East and West, is simply the very graphic and accurate description of the chain of our planet, the Earth, represented in the book of Dzyan (11) thus: The Mazdean names given above have only to be replaced by those used in the Secret Doctrine to become an orthodox tenet. The Earth (our World), therefore, is tripartite, because the chain of the worlds is situated on three different planes above our globe; and it is septempartite because of the seven globes or spheres which compose the chain. Hence the further meaning given in Vendidad XIX. 39, showing that Qaniratha alone is combined with imat, this (earth), while all other Karshvares are combined with the word avat, that or those upper earths. Nothing could be plainer. (SD II )

19 II. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 9 3. The Planetary Spirit of our Globe and other Planets Plato proves himself an Initiate, when saying in Cratylus that [theos] is derived from the verb [theein], to move, to run, as the first astronomers who observed the motions of the heavenly bodies called the planets [theoi], the gods. [ ] Later, the word produced another term, [aletheia] the breath of God. (SD I 2 fn) Plato represented the planets as moved by an intrinsic Rector, one with his dwelling, like A boatman in his boat. As for Aristotle, he called those rulers immaterial substances; though as one who had never been initiated, he rejected the gods as Entities (See Vossius, Vol. II., p. 528). But this did not prevent him from recognising the fact that the stars and planets were not inanimate masses but acting and living bodies indeed As if sidereal spirits were the divine portion of their phenomena, [[ta theoitera pon phaneron]] (De Caelo. I. 9). If we look for corroboration in more modern and Scientific times, we find Tycho Brahe recognising in the stars a triple force, divine, spiritual and vital. Kepler, putting together the Pythagorean sentence, The Sun, guardian of Jupiter, and the verses of David, He placed his throne in the Sun, and The Lord is the Sun, etc., said that he understood perfectly how the Pythagoreans could believe that all the globes disseminated through Space were rational Intelligences, facultates ratiocinativae, circulating around the Sun, in which resides a pure Spirit of fire; the source of the general harmony (De Motibus planetarum harmonicis, p. 248). (SD I 493) [E]very globe [ ] is under the supervision and guidance of special Builders and Watchers the various Dhyan-Chohans. (SD I 233) 1. The Lha which turns the fourth (Globe, or our Earth) is servant to the Lha(s) of the seven (the planetary Spirits), they who revolve, driving their chariots around their Lord, the one eye (Loka- Chakshub) of our world. His breath gives life to the seven (gives light to the planets). It gave life to the first. They are all dragons of Wisdom, adds the Commentary. (Book II, Stanza I.)

20 10 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM [...] This expression shows in plain language that the Spirit- Guardian of our globe, which is the fourth in the chain, is subordinate to the chief Spirit (or God) of the Seven Planetary Genii or Spirits. As already explained, the ancients had, in their Kyriel of gods, seven chief Mystery-gods, whose chief was, exoterically, the visible Sun, or the eighth, and, esoterically, the second Logos, the Demiurge. The seven (who have now become the Seven Eyes of the Lord in the Christian religion) were the regents of the seven chief planets [ ] The seven higher make the Seven Lhas create the world, states a Commentary; which means that our Earth, leaving aside the rest, was created or fashioned by terrestrial spirits, the Regents being simply the supervisors. This is the first germ, the seed of that which grew later into the Tree of Astrology and Astrolatry. The Higher ones were the Kosmocratores, the fabricators of our solar system. (SD II 22-23) The Globe, propelled onward by the Spirit of the Earth and his six assistants, gets all its vital forces, life, and powers through the medium of the seven planetary Dhyanis from the Spirit of the Sun. They are his messengers of Light and Life. (SD II 28-29) A Planetary Spirit is a Ruler of a planet, a kind of finite or personal god. There is a marked difference, however, between the Rulers of the Sacred Planets and the Rulers of a small chain of worlds like our own. (TBL 47) [T]he terrestrial spirit of the earth is not of a very high grade. It must be remembered that the planetary spirit has nothing to do with the spiritual man, but with things of matter and cosmic beings. The gods and rulers of our Earth are cosmic Rulers; that is to say, they form into shape and fashion cosmic matter, for which they were called Cosmocratores. They never had any concern with spirit; the Dhyani- Buddhas, belonging to quite a different hierarchy, are especially concerned with the latter. (TBL 48) If, for instance, Esoteric Philosophy teaches that the Spirit (collectively again) of Jupiter is far superior to the Terrestrial Spirit, it is not because Jupiter is so many times larger than our earth, but

21 II. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 11 because its substance and texture are so much finer than, and superior to, that of the earth. And it is in proportion to this quality that the Hierarchies of respective Planetary Builders reflect and act upon the ideations they find planned for them in the Universal Consciousness, the real great Architect of the Universe. (TBL 50) The [seven] Planetary [spirits] who are not the Dhyani-Buddhas have everything to do with the earth, physically and morally. It is they who rule its destinies and the fate of men. They are Karmic agencies [but] they have no concern with the three higher principles; they have, however, something to do with the fourth. (TBL 48) [But what then are the Dhyani Buddhas?] The Dhyani-Buddhas are concerned with the human higher triad in a mysterious way that need not be explained here. The Builders [on the other hand] are a class called, as I already explained, Cosmocratores, or the invisible but intelligent Masons, who fashion matter according to the ideal plan ready for them in that which we call Divine and Cosmic Ideation. They were called by the early Masons the Grand Architect of the Universe collectively: but now the modern Masons make of their G. A. O. T. U. a personal and singular Deity. (TBL 48-49) I may tell you that the Dhyani-Buddhas have nothing to do with the lower practical work of the earth-plane. To use an illustration: the Dhyani-Buddha may be compared to a great ruler of any condition of life. Suppose that it were merely that of a house: the great ruler has nothing directly to do with the dirty work of a kitchen-maid. The higher Dhyanis evolve lower and lower hierarchies of Dhyanis more and more consolidated and more material until we arrive at this chain of Planets, some of the latter being the Manus, Pitris and Lunar Ancestors. As I show in the Second Volume of the Secret Doctrine, these Pitris have the task of giving birth to man. They do this by projecting their shadows and the first humanity (if indeed it can be called humanity) are the astral Chhayas of the Lunar Ancestors over which physical nature builds the physical body, which at first is formless. (TBL )

22 12 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM 4. The principles of planet Earth (Globe D) The correspondence between a mother-globe and her child-man may be thus worked out. Both have their seven principles. In the Globe, the elementals (of which there are in all seven species) form (a) a gross body, (b) her fluidic double (linga sariram), (c) her life principle (jiva); (d) her fourth principle kama rupa is formed by her creative impulse working from centre to circumference; (e) her fifth principle (animal soul or Manas, physical intelligence) is embodied in the vegetable (in germ) and animal kingdoms; (f) her sixth principle (or spiritual soul, Buddhi) is man (g) and her seventh principle (atma) is in a film of spiritualized akasa that surrounds her. (ML 94)

23 13 III. THE REBIRTH OF THE EARTH 1. Each planetary chain is a reincarnation of a lower planetary chain The Earth and mankind, like the Sun, Moon, and planets, have all their growth, changes, developments, and gradual evolution in their life-periods; they are born, become infants, then children, adolescents, grown-up bodies, grow old, and finally die. (SD I 609) Every such chain of worlds is the progeny and creation of another, lower, and dead chain its reincarnation, so to say. To make it clearer: we are told of the planets of which seven only were held as sacred, as being ruled by the highest regents or gods, and not at all because the ancients knew nothing of the others that each of these, whether known or unknown, is a septenary, as is the chain to which the Earth belongs (see Esoteric Buddhism ). For instance, all such planets as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc., etc., or our Earth, are as visible to us as our globe, probably, is to the inhabitants of the other planets, if any, because they are all on the same plane; while the superior fellow-globes of these planets are on other planes quite outside that of our terrestrial senses. (SD I ) 2. The Days and Nights of Planets It is said that the planetary chains having their Days and their Nights i.e., periods of activity or life, and of inertia or death and behave in heaven as do men on Earth: they generate their likes, get old, and become personally extinct, their spiritual principles only living in their progeny as a survival of themselves. Without attempting the 13

24 14 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM very difficult task of giving out the whole process in all its cosmic details, enough may be said to give an approximate idea of it. When a planetary chain is in its last Round, its Globe 1 or A, before finally dying out, sends all its energy and principles into a neutral centre of latent force, a laya centre, and thereby informs a new nucleus of undifferentiated substance or matter, i.e., calls it into activity or gives it life. (SD I 154) Occultism divides the periods of Rest (Pralaya) into several kinds; [1] there is the individual pralaya of each Globe, as humanity and life pass on to the next; seven minor Pralayas in each Round; [2] the planetary Pralaya, when seven Rounds are completed; [3] the Solar Pralaya, when the whole system is at an end; and finally [4] the Universal Maha or Brahmâ-Pralaya at the close of the Age of Brahmâ. (SD I 172 fn) [Note: An Age or Life of Brahmâ is a Universal Maha-Manvantara, also called Maha-Kalpa: it constitutes 100 years of Brahmâ: 311,040,000,000,000 years (see SD II 70)] There are three kinds of pralayas and manwantara: 1. The universal or Maha pralaya and manwantara. [Each lasts 311,040,000,000,000 years, or a life of Brahmâ.] 2. The solar pralaya and manwantara. 3. The minor pralaya and manwantara. [Each lasts 4,320,000,000 years or a day of Brahmâ.] When the pralaya No. 1 is finished the universal manwantara begins. Then the whole universe must be re-evoluted de novo. When the pralaya of a solar system comes it affects that solar system only. A solar pralaya = 7 minor pralayas [ = 7 planetary pralayas]. The minor pralayas of No. 3 concern but our little string of globes, whether manbearing or not. To such a string our Earth belongs. Besides this within a minor [or planetary] pralaya there is a condition of planetary rest or as the astronomers say death, like that of our present moon in which the rocky body of the planet survives but the life impulse has

25 III. THE REBIRTH OF THE EARTH 15 passed out. For example. Let us imagine that our earth is one of a group of seven planets or man-bearing worlds more or less eliptically arranged. Our earth being at the exact lower central point of the orbit of evolution, viz., half way round we will call the first globe A, the last Z. After each solar pralaya there is a complete destruction of our system and after each solar p. begins the absolute objective reformation of our system and each time everything is more perfect than before. (ML 93-94) Within one solar period (of a p. and m.) occur seven such minor periods [planetary manvantaras], in an ascending scale of progressive development. (ML 97) [W]hereas after an absolute pralaya, or when the pre-existing material consists but of one element, and breath is everywhere, the latter acts from without inwardly: after a minor pralaya, everything having remained in statu quo in a refrigerated state, so to say, like the moon at the first flutter of manvantara, the planet or planets begin their resurrection to life from within outwardly (SD 12 fn) During the minor pralayas, once overtaken by the Night, the planets remain intact, though dead, as a huge animal, caught and embedded in the polar ice, remains the same for ages. (SD I, 18 fn) Theosophists will remember that, according to Occult teaching, Cyclic pralayas so-called are but obscurations, during which periods Nature, i.e., everything visible and invisible on a resting planet remains in statu quo. Nature rests and slumbers, no work of destruction going on on the globe even if no active work is done. All forms, as well as their astral types, remain as they were at the last moment of its activity. The night of a planet has hardly any twilight preceding it. It is caught like a huge mammoth by an avalanche, and remains slumbering and frozen till the next dawn of its new day a very short one indeed in comparison to the Day of Brahma. (SD II, 660 n)

26 16 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM 3. On manvantaras and Manus [What does manvantara mean?] It means really Between two Manus, of which there are fourteen [seven root and seven seed manus] in every Day of Brahma, [planetary manvantara] such a Day consisting of 1,000 aggregates of four ages or 1,000 Great Ages, Mahayugas. When the word Manu is analyzed it is found that Orientalists state that it is from the root Man to think, hence the thinking man. But, esoterically every Manu, as an anthropomorphized patron of his special cycle, or Round, is but the personified idea of the Thought Divine (like the Hermetic Pymander). Each of the Manus, therefore, is the special god, the creator and fashioner of all that appears during his own respective cycle of being or Manvantara. (TBL 98-99) [Note: A life or Age of Brahmâ (311,040,000,000,000) is 100 years of Brahmâ (one year of Brahmâ is 3,110,400,000,000 years). One year of Brahmâ is 360 days and nights of Brahmâ (one day of Brahmâ is 4,320,000,000 years). One Day of Brahma equals 14 manvantaras; one such a manvantara is years, thus one Day of Brahmâ is indeed 4,320,000,000 years. Such a Day equals also 1000 Mahayugas: one Mahayuga being 4,320,000 years. A Maha Yuga is an aggregate of four Yugas: (1) Krita-Yuga 1,728,000 years; (2) Treta Yuga 1,296,000 years; (3) Dwapara Yuga 864,000 years and (4) Kali Yuga 432,000 years.] [What is a Manu?] Manu is, and contains the potentiality of all the thinking forms which will be developed on earth from this particular source. In the exoteric teaching he is the beginning of this earth, and from him and his daughter Ila humanity is born; he is a unity which contains all the pluralities and their modifications. Every Manvantara has thus its own Manu and from this Manu the various Manus or rather all the Manasa of the Kalpas will proceed. As an analogy he may be compared to the white light which contains all the other rays, giving birth to them by passing through the prism of differentiation and evolution. (TBL 99) Manu is the synthesis perhaps of the Manasa, and he is a single consciousness in the same sense that while all the different cells

27 III. THE REBIRTH OF THE EARTH 17 of which the human body is composed are different and varying consciousnesses there is still a unit of consciousness which is the man. But this unit, so to say, is not a single consciousness: it is a reflection of thousands and millions of consciousnesses which a man has absorbed. But Manu is not really an individuality, it is the whole of mankind. You may say that Manu is a generic name for the Pitris, the progenitors of mankind. They come, as I have shown, from the Lunar Chain. They give birth to humanity, for, having become the first men, they give birth to others by evolving their shadows, their astral selves. They not only give birth to humanity but to animals and all other creatures. In this sense it is said in the Puranas of the great Yogis that they gave birth, one to all the serpents, another to all the birds, etc. But, as the moon receives its light from the Sun, so the descendants of the Lunar Pitris receive their higher mental light from the Sun or the Son of the Sun. For all you know Vaivasvata Manu may be an Avatar or a personification of Mahat, commissioned by the Universal Mind to lead and guide thinking Humanity onwards. (TBL 100) We are told in the Sacred Hindu scriptures that the first Manu produced six other Manus (seven primary Manus in all), and these produced in their turn each seven other Manus (Bhrigu I, 61-63) the production of the latter standing in the occult treatises as 7 x 7. Thus it becomes clear that Manu the last one, the progenitor of our Fourth Round Humanity must be the seventh, since we are on our fourth Round, and there is a root-manu at globe A and a seed Manu at globe G. Just as each planetary Round commences with the appearance of a Root Manu (Dhyan Chohan) and closes with a Seed-Manu, so a Root and a Seed Manu appear respectively at the beginning and the termination of the human period on any particular planet [globe] It will be easily seen from the foregoing statement that a Manu-antaric period means, as the term implies, the time between the appearance of two Manus or Dhyan Chohans; and hence a minor Manvantara is the duration of the seven races on any particular planet, and a major manvantara is the period of one human round along the Planetary chain. Moreover, that, as it is said that each of the seven Manus creates 7 x 7 Manus, and that there are 49 root-races on the seven planets during each Round, then every root-race has its Manu. The present seventh Manu

28 18 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM is called Vaivasvata and stands in the exoteric texts for that Manu who represents in India the Babylonian Xisuthrus and the Jewish Noah. But in the esoteric books we are told that Manu Vaivasvata, the progenitor of our Fifth race who saved it from the flood that nearly exterminated the Fourth (Atlantis) is not the seventh Manu, mentioned in the nomenclature of the Root, or primitive-manus, but one of the 49 Manus emanated from this Root-Manu. (SD II ) 4. Planet Earth is a reincarnation of the Moon Suppose such a [reincarnation] process to have taken place in the lunar planetary chain; suppose again, for argument s sake [ ] that the moon is far older than the Earth. Imagine the six fellowglobes of the moon aeons before the first globe of our seven was evolved just in the same position in relation to each other as the fellow-globes of our chain occupy in regard to our Earth now.[ ] And now it will be easy to imagine further Globe A of the lunar chain informing Globe A of the terrestrial chain, and dying; Globe B of the former sending after that its energy into Globe B of the new chain; then Globe C of the lunar, creating its progeny sphere C of the terrene chain; then the Moon (our Satellite) pouring forth into the lowest globe of our planetary ring Globe D, our Earth all its life, energy and powers; and, having transferred them to a new centre becoming virtually a dead planet, in which rotation has almost ceased since the birth of our globe. The Moon is now the cold residual quantity, the shadow dragged after the new body, into which her living powers and principles are transfused. She now is doomed for long ages to be ever pursuing the Earth, to be attracted by and to attract her progeny. Constantly vampirised by her child, she revenges herself on it by soaking it through and through with the nefarious, invisible, and poisoned influence which emanates from the occult side of her nature. For she is a dead, yet a living body. The particles of her decaying corpse are full of active and destructive life, although the body which they had formed is soulless and lifeless. Therefore its emanations are at the same time beneficent and maleficent this circumstance finding its parallel on earth in the fact that the grass

29 III. THE REBIRTH OF THE EARTH 19 and plants are nowhere more juicy and thriving than on the graves; while at the same time it is the graveyard or corpse-emanations, which kill. And like all ghouls or vampires, the moon is the friend of the sorcerers and the foe of the unwary. From the archaic aeons and the later times of the witches of Thessaly, down to some of the present tantrikas of Bengal, her nature and properties were known to every Occultist, but have remained a closed book for physicists. (SD I ) The Earth Chain of seven globes as thus defined is the direct reincarnation of a former chain of seven globes, and that former family of seven was the moon chain, the moon itself being the visible representative of the fourth globe of the old chain. When that former vast entity composed of the Moon and six others, all united in one mass, reached its limit of life it died just as any being dies. Each one of the seven sent its energies into space and gave similar life or vibration to cosmic dust matter, and the total cohesive force of the whole kept the seven energies together. This resulted in the evolving of the present Earth Chain of seven centers of energy or evolution combined in one mass. As the Moon was the fourth of the old series it is on the same plane of perception as the Earth, and as we are now confined in our consciousness largely to Earth we are able only to see one of the old seven to wit: our Moon. When we are functioning on any of the other seven we will perceive in our sky the corresponding old corpse which will then be a Moon, and we will not see the present Moon. Venus, Mars, Mercury and other visible planets are all fourth-plane globes of distinct planetary masses and for that reason are visible to us, their companion six centers of energy and consciousness being invisible. (Ocean 24-25) 5. A description of the genesis of the Earth Chain [I]n the Seventh Round on the Lunar chain, when Class 7 [of the monads], the last, quits Globe A, that Globe, instead of falling asleep, as it had done in previous Rounds, begins to die (to go into its planetary pralaya); and in dying it transfers successively, as just said,

30 20 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM its principles, or life-elements and energy, etc., one after the other to a new laya-centre, which commences the formation of Globe A of the Earth Chain. A similar process takes place for each of the Globes of the lunar chain one after the other, each forming a fresh Globe of the earth-chain. Our Moon was the fourth Globe of the series, and was on the same plane of perception as our Earth. But Globe A of the lunar chain is not fully dead till the first Monads of the first class have passed from Globe G or Z, the last of the lunar chain, into the Nirvana which awaits them between the two chains; and similarly for all the other Globes as stated, each giving birth to the corresponding globe of the earth-chain. (SD I ) 6. What are the laya-centres on which the planet is built? The seven Layu centres are the seven Zero points, using the term Zero in the same sense that Chemists do, to indicate a point at which, in Esotericism, the scale of reckoning of differentiation begins. From the Centres beyond which Esoteric philosophy allows us to perceive the dim metaphysical outlines of the Seven Sons of Life and Light, the Seven Logoi of the Hermetic and all other philosophers begins the differentiation of the elements which enter into the constitution of our Solar System. (SD I ) We have said that Laya is what Science may call the Zero-point or line; the realm of absolute negativeness, or the one real absolute Force, the noumenon of the Seventh State of that which we ignorantly call and recognise as Force ; or again the Noumenon of Undifferentiated Cosmic Substance which is itself an unreachable and unknowable object to finite perception; the root and basis of all states of objectivity and subjectivity too; the neutral axis, not one of the many aspects, but its centre. It may serve to elucidate the meaning if we attempt to imagine a neutral centre the dream of those who would discover perpetual motion. A neutral centre is, in one aspect, the limiting point of any given set of senses. Thus, imagine two consecutive planes of matter as already formed; each of these corresponding to an appropriate set of perceptive organs. We are forced to admit that

31 III. THE REBIRTH OF THE EARTH 21 between these two planes of matter an incessant circulation takes place; and if we follow the atoms and molecules of (say) the lower in their transformation upwards, these will come to a point where they pass altogether beyond the range of the faculties we are using on the lower plane. In fact, to us the matter of the lower plane there vanishes from our perception into nothing or rather it passes on to the higher plane, and the state of matter corresponding to such a point of transition must certainly possess special and not readily discoverable properties. Such Seven Neutral Centres, then, are produced by Fohat, who, when, as Milton has it Fair foundations (are) laid whereon to build... quickens matter into activity and evolution. (SD I 148) 7. Fohat guides the transfer of the energies from one planet to another 2. The Swift and the Radient One produces the seven Layu centres, against which none will prevail to the great day be with us and seats the universe on these eternal foundations, surrounding Sien-Tchan with the Elementary Germs. (Book I. Stanza VI.) (SD I 138) 4. He [Fohat] builds them in the likeness of older wheels (worlds), placing them on the imperishable centres. How does Fohat build them? He collects the fiery dust. He makes balls of fire, runs through them and round them, infusing life thereinto; then sets them in motion, some one, some the other way. They are cold he makes them hot. They are dry he makes them moist. They shine he fans and cools them. Thus acts Fohat from one Twilight to the other during seven eternities. (Book I. Stanza VI.) (SD I 144) The Worlds are built in the likeness of older Wheels i.e., those that existed in preceding Manvantaras and went into Pralaya because the Law for the birth, growth, and decay of everything in Kosmos, from the Sun to the glow-worm in the grass, is One. It is an everlasting work of perfection with every new appearance, but the Substance-Matter and Forces are all one and the same. But

32 22 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM this Law acts on every planet through minor and varying laws. The imperishable Laya Centres have a great importance, and their meaning must be fully understood if we would have a clear conception of the Archaic Cosmogony, whose theories have now passed into Occultism. At present, one thing may be stated. The worlds are built neither upon, nor over, nor in the Laya centres, the zero-point being a condition, not any mathematical point. (SD I 145) It is Fohat who guides the transfer of the principles from one planet to the other, from one star to another child-star. When a planet dies, its informing principles are transferred to a laya or sleeping centre, with potential but latent energy in it, which is thus awakened into life and begins to form itself into a new sidereal body [ ] When Fohat is said to produce Seven Laya Centres, it means that for formative or creative purposes, the Great Law (Theists may call it God) stops, or rather modifies its perpetual motion on seven invisible points within the area of the manifested Universe. The great Breath digs through Space seven holes into Laya to cause them to circumgyrate during Manvantara (Occult Catechism). (SD I 147)

33 23 IV. ROUNDS AND THEIR MAIN CHARACTERISTICS 1. Planetary life proceeds in seven Rounds Everything in the metaphysical as in the physical Universe is septenary. Hence every sidereal body, every planet, whether visible or invisible, is credited with six companion globes [ ] The evolution of life proceeds on these seven globes or bodies from the 1st to the 7th in Seven Rounds or Seven Cycles. (SD I ) 2. What is a Round? [B]y a Round is meant the serial evolution of nascent material nature, of the seven globes of our chain with their mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms (man being there included in the latter and standing at the head of it) during the whole period of a life-cycle. The latter would be called by the Brahmins a Day of Brahma. It is, in short, one revolution of the Wheel (our planetary chain), which is composed of seven globes (or seven separate Wheels, in another sense this time). When evolution has run downward into matter, from planet A to planet G, or Z, as the Western students call it, it is one Round. (SD I ) 3. Each Round is guided and built by various Dhyan Chohans [T]he work of each Round is said to be apportioned to a different group of so-called Creators or Architects, so is that of every globe; i.e., it is under the supervision and guidance of special Builders and Watchers the various Dhyan-Chohans. (SD I 233) 23

34 24 THE PATH OF THE ETERNAL PILGRIM In the Esoteric System, the Dhyanis [Buddhas] watch successively over one of the Rounds and the great Root-races of our planetary chain. They are, moreover, said to send their Bhodisatvas, the human correspondents of the Dhyani-Buddhas (of whom vide infra) during every Round and Race. Out of the Seven Truths and Revelations, or rather revealed secrets, four only have been handed to us, as we are still in the Fourth Round, and the world also has only had four Buddhas, so far. This is a very complicated question, and will receive more ample treatment later on. So far There are only Four Truths, and Four Vedas say the Hindus and Buddhists. For a similar reason Irenaeus insisted on the necessity of Four Gospels. But as every new Root-race at the head of a Round must have its revelation and revealers, the next Round will bring the Fifth, the following the Sixth, and so on. (SD I 42) There are incarnating and there are watching Dhyanis [Buddhas] [ ] the latter appear to do their work in this wise. Every class or hierarchy corresponds to one of the Rounds, the first and lowest hierarchy to the first and less developed Round, the second to the second, and so on till the seventh Round is reached, which is under the supervision of the highest Hierarchy of the Seven Dhyanis. At the last, they will appear on earth, as also will some of the Planetary, for the whole humanity will have become Bodhisattvas, their own sons, i.e., the Sons of their own Spirit and Essence or themselves. Thus there is only a functional difference between the Dhyanis and the Planetary. The one are entirely divine, the other sidereal. The former only are called Anupadaka, parentless, because they radiated directly from that which is neither Father nor Mother but the unmanifested Logos. They are, in fact, the spiritual aspect of the seven Logoi; and the Planetary Spirits are in their totality, as the seven Sephiroth (the three higher being supercosmic abstractions and blinds in the Kabala), and constitute the Heavenly man, or Adam Kadmon; Dhyani is a generic name in Buddhism, an abbreviation for all the gods. (TBL 52) The Builders are those who build and fashion things into a form. The term is equally applied to the Builders of the Universe and to the small globes like those of our chain. (TBL 56)