Volume 3, Number 2, Spring 2007 Editorial Articles
Poems Featured Artist
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Evolution of the Races and the Astrology
of Nations: by PHILLIP LINDSAY “Emphasis will also increasingly be laid upon the unfolding Plan, and men will be brought to its recognition through a study of the evolution of the human family, through a close consideration of historical processes, and through a comparative analysis of ancient and modern civilisations and cultures. The thread of purpose will be noted and followed through, century after century, integrating not only history into one complete story of the revelation of divine qualities through the medium of humanity, but integrating with it and into it all world philosophies, the central theme of all creative art, the symbolism of architecture and the conclusions of science.”(1) The rise and fall of civilisations indicates that there is a cyclic ebb and flow - a birth, life and death of entities we call races and nations: “The period between egoic [soul] Cycles. Herein is hid the mystery of the 777 incarnations and concerns the relation of the unit to his group … It concerns man in the period between the savage stage and that of the disciple, when he is an average man but still in the two Halls. The mystery of all root races lies here, and the egoic cycles coincide with the building of racial forms, and civilisations. A man will reincarnate again and again in the various subraces of a root race until a certain cycle has been covered ...”(2) Races and nations have individual astrological influences--as a human entity does, and are influenced by the seven rays. The races and nations are, therefore, conditioned by a soul ray and personality ray, just like a human being, who comprises one of the “cells” of a national body. As planets have definite cycles, so do the rays. The planets are the “vahanas,” or vehicles, of the rays. As planets have various incarnations of the immense Lives that inhabit them, so the rays come in and out of incarnation under cyclic and karmic law. The Great Year, Yugas and Races “Hence the emphasis laid in all occult books on the study of cycles, and on the differentiation of the one hundred years of Brahma into its component parts. In this knowledge lies hid the mystery of Being itself …”(3) Cycles are related to the four great Yugas (ages) enumerated in Hindu philosophy. They are the vast periods within which the consciousness of the races and nations unfold. The Yugas are based upon astronomical computations derived from the rotation and orbit of the Earth. The “Great Year” of 25,920 years is an astronomical cycle based upon the phenomenon known as “Precession of the Equinoxes.” Precession is the result of the combined action of the Sun and Moon that causes a mass of matter to accumulate about the Earth’s equator. Hence the shape of the Earth is really an “oblate spheroid,” not a perfect sphere. The gravity of the Moon and the pull of the Sun cause the Earth to gyrate like a spinning top. As the Earth wobbles to keep its relative position in space, it causes a regression in the equinoctial points along the ecliptic. This moves a mean 50” of arc per year in the zodiac, or one degree in 72 years, and a full 360-degree circle in 25,920 years. The astrological ages with which we are familiar are the twelve periods of 2,160 years each, through which the equinoxes precess, totaling 25,920 years. Mackey says that when this phenomenon of a “full circle” precession cycle has occurred 45 times, the poles become inverted.(4) Polar inversion therefore occurs every 1,080,000 years. H.P. Blavatsky (HPB) states that Mackey’s approach is very close to the truth.(5)
Diagram I (6) 1,080,000 years is a fraction (1/4) of the more commonly known “Mahan
Yuga” of 4,320,000 years. As its numerical sequence implies,
this figure is divided by the proportions 4,3,2,1 - giving the periods
of the Four Yugas. Whenever the Great Year (25,920 years) starts or finishes, HPB infers that Earth is visited by certain cosmic entities. When talking about the building of the Great Pyramid over 75,000 years ago, HPB remarks: “The MIGHTY ONES [giants] perform their great works and leave behind them everlasting monuments to commemorate their visit, every time they penetrate within our mayavic veil ... Appearing at the beginning of cycles, as also of every Sidereal Year (of 25,868 years) therefore the Kabeiri or Kabarim received their name in Chaldea, as it means the measures of Heaven from Kob - measure of, and Urim - heavens.”(8) These visitors could be from outside the solar system altogether, perhaps from the Pleiades? Although this is beyond the scope of the current discussion, there are many references within Egyptians texts to the Pleiades, Orion and Sirius. Perhaps the “Mighty Ones” are members of the Hierarchy who possess the secret formulae? Humanity still cannot figure how the Great Pyramid was built, let alone when it was built. HPB points to a time several precession cycles past, perhaps between 78,000(9) and 103,000 years ago, but definitely further back in time than Egyptologists claim. Zodiacal Ages There are twelve zodiacal ages in a 25,920 “Great Year.” Each astrological age of 2,160 years has seen a major religion come forth, along with an Avatar or great spiritual leader who has enunciated the principles and qualities of the zodiacal sign. Sacred temples, monuments and pyramids have always been aligned to significant
stars at the start of these important cycles in history. Temples and
other sacred sites have also been positioned according to Earth’s
magnetic lines, so that when rituals are properly performed, there is ideally,
a successful invocation of the power of Deity. Rootraces The Schemes, Chains, Globes and Rounds are the bigger picture within which the Rootraces unfold. “It must be remembered that every scheme has seven chains; that each chain has seven globes, making a totality of forty-nine globes; that each globe is again in turn occupied by the life of the Logos during what we call seven rounds, making literally three hundred and forty-three incarnations, or fresh impulses to manifest. We must add to these major manifestations such lesser ones as those named by us root-races, and sub-races, also branch races, and thus we are faced with a complexity that is enough to stagger the average student.”(10) In a temporal sense, on Earth now, within the evolution of this solar system, the Earth is in the:
The Rootraces span immense ages, and the previous Atlantean or Fourth Rootrace, existed for several million years, as did the Lemurian or Third Rootrace before that.
Diagram II: The Earth Scheme The Fourth Branchrace of the Fourth Subrace of the Fourth Rootrace (Atlantis), represented the midway point and deepest incarnation into matter for the whole chain and globe periods, hence the incredible conflict (Ray Four) of the Atlantean war. There are numerical affinities between the races and subraces; for instance, the Fifth Subrace of the Fourth Rootrace was the seed for the Fifth Rootrace, just as the Sixth Subrace of the Fifth Rootrace is the seed for the Sixth Rootrace:
Diagram III Cycles, as they affect nations, involve the study of Rootraces, Subraces and Branchraces: “The Sub-races are also subject to the same cleansing process, as also the side-branchlets (the family races [Branchraces]). Let one well-acquainted with astronomy and mathematics, throw a retrospective glance into the twilight and shadows of the past. Let him observe, take notes of what he knows of the history of peoples and nations, and collate their respective rises and falls with what is known of astronomical cycles - especially with the Sidereal year, equal to 25,868 solar years. If the observer is gifted with the faintest intuition, then will he find how the weal and woe of nations is intimately connected with the beginning and close of this sidereal cycle ... [this cycle] took place nearly 10,000 years ago ... Our meaning is very clear. Every sidereal year the tropics recede from the pole four degrees in each revolution from the equinoctial points, as the equator rounds through the Zodiacal constellations. Now as every astronomer knows, at present the tropic is only ... [23.5 degrees] ... from the equator. Hence it is still 2.5 degrees to run before the end of the Sidereal year; which gives humanity in general, and our civilised races in particular, a reprieve of about 16,000 years.”(11) HPB could be saying that the Fifth Branchrace (British/Anglo-Saxon) started 10,000 years ago (around 8000 BC), and has another 16,000 years to go. This approximates the well-known date of the sinking of the last part of Atlantis in 9564 BC. A cycle finishes, another begins. One race is destroyed while another is born. “... each Family-Race [Branchrace] has an average existence of about 30,000 years. Thus the European ‘Family Race’ has still a good many thousands of years to run ... It is somewhat curious to mark the comparative approximation of duration between the lives of a ‘Family-Race’ [Branchrace] and a ‘Sidereal Year.’”(12) [25,920 years] Some points worth making from the above, d. Perhaps there are then, the 25,000-year cycles of a 10 sign zodiac, and the approximate 25,000-30,000 year cycles of branchraces - as separate cycles? More testimonies on the 25,000-year cycle: “According to Seneca, Berosus taught prophecy of every future event and cataclysm by the Zodiac; and the time fixed by him for the conflagration of the world (pralaya), and another for a deluge, is found to answer to the time given in an ancient Egyptian papyrus. It comes at every renewal of the cycle of the sidereal year of 25,868 years.”(13) “Plutarch is quoted from his Life of Sulla, saying: "One day when the sky was serene . . . a sound was heard in it . . . of a trumpet, so loud, shrill and mournful, that it affrighted . . . the world. The Tuscan sages said that it portended a new race of men, and a renovation of the world; for they affirmed that there were eight several kinds of men, all being different in life and manners, and that Heaven had allotted each its time, which was limited by the circuit of the great year. [approx. 25,920 years]”(14) This latter event may have taken place between the birth and death of Sulla, 138 BC - 78 BC, or at the height of his reign as dictator from 82 BC - 79 BC. This is within range of the author’s speculations that the Age of Pisces started around 43 BC. (fn. See previous tabulations and footnotes) Subraces, Branchraces and Time A Rootrace has seven Subraces, and a Subrace has seven Branchraces. The nations arise from the Branchraces. The West is now in the Fifth (Aryan) Rootrace, halfway through the Fifth Subrace, and in the Sixth Branchrace, bearing in mind that the Fifth Branchrace still has some 16,000 years to play itself out. There are many overlaps of the races, subraces and branchraces, and they all have their own courses to run. The problem partially involves thinking spirally in relation to time, instead of linearly, which seems to be a characteristic of the concrete-minded Fifth Subrace conditioned by Ray Five: Concrete Science. The Fifth Subrace is at the peak of its outgoing cycle of “sowing” and is starting its inward cycle of “reaping.” The Fifth Rootrace is on the upward arc of evolution, and this gives perspective to the relatively small time cycles of our races, which we consider immense. The relative perfection of manas or (concrete) mind (in this Fifth Branchrace of the Fifth Subrace of the Fifth Rootrace – 5/5/5) indicates that a certain “quintessence” or peak, has been reached. This of course must be seen as relative to the “Fourth Round” cycle, the true “quintessence” manifesting in the “Fifth Round.”(16) The Five Subraces of the Fifth Rootrace (Started 1,000,000 years ago. Times stated here are arbitrary as per HPB’s statements and speculations mentioned in Appendix III.)
Seven Branchraces of the Fifth Subrace Started 100,000 years ago with the following a highly speculative example from another author.(17) Slav, Russian, Croat, Slovak (100,000 BC) Prussian, Lett, Lithuanian German, Austrian Dutch, Frisian, Irish,
Scottish, Welsh Scandinavian, British, Anglo-Saxon Californian, Australian,
New Zealand South American (Brazil home
6th Rootrace) The order of emergence of the Nations and Branchraces is approximate and open to speculation. The Sixth Branchrace will evolve in parallel to the other Branchraces, and eventually produce the Sixth Subrace. One can see this as a spiral process or linear overlapping as shown previously. Duration of Races and Subraces vary, depending on the rays ruling them, what is intended by the Logos and of course, karma; quite possibly it works on a ratio system, as mentioned earlier. HPB says that the Kali Yuga started in 3102 BC with the death of Krishna and that in 1898 the first 5,000-year stage of that 432,000-year cycle was reached. Note here again the number 5, and its correspondence to the Kali Yuga of the Fifth Rootrace. Part of Hierarchical planning was to publicly introduce the first stage of the Mystery teachings before the end of this shorter cycle. The ray influencing the Fifth Rootrace is Ray Three of Active Intelligence, bringing about perfected intellect.(18) Cycles and the Races There are many statements on cycles in The Secret Doctrine, and it rests with the student’s intuition and discrimination to discern what is “veiled.” The Law of Cycles is a very intricate science, well guarded by a great veil of maya thrown around it, as one will find when trying to penetrate its arcanum; it cannot be accessed by the concrete mind alone and is in itself an initiatory process. Cycles are intricately woven with karma, which is cyclic and works itself out to exactitude through the Four Lords of Karma and the One who holds the Office of the Christ. These five constitute Earth’s true esoteric astrologers, as they must have an understanding of conditions for the rebirth of human soul groups, according to astrology and ray cycles, within and across many nations. Earth history can be viewed from “Individualisation” some 21 million years ago, in the Third Subrace of the Third Rootrace (Lemuria), when the “spark of manas” or mind was ignited in humanity. Ray Five was the conditioning energy of the time, as no doubt was Ray Three. Venus is the vehicle for Ray Five in this solar system, hence its particular alignment with the Earth at that time. Venus is also the “higher self” to Earth and hence bears a profound relationship to our planet. The first great flood of Atlantis occurred about 860,000 years ago; and the fourth and final sinking of its last vestige Poseidonis, about 12,000 years ago, in 9654 BC. Of course there are still many Atlantean races in existence, comprising Asia and the Indians of the Americas. There are many souls in Asia who have Fifth Root Race consciousness. Similarly, Hindu India is the cradle of the Fifth Rootrace, yet many souls incarnate there today have Atlantean consciousness. India’s peak has passed thousands of years ago, but her cycle will come again. The nations (3-4,000 years) come forth from the Branchraces (30,000 years approximately):
Diagram V(19) The numerical correspondence of a branchrace or subrace within a rootrace is a key to understanding the overlapping that exists among them. In this respect, the Fifth Subrace of the Fourth Rootrace was extremely important for helping the Manu establish the Fifth Rootrace. It is the history and cycles of the Fifth Subrace of the Fifth Rootrace that will now be focussed upon, more particularly Britain, America and Australia. Dating the Races “Now our Fifth Root-Race has already been in existence—as a race sui generis [of its own kind] and quite free from its parent stem—about 1,000,000 years.”(20) This seems to conflict with DK’s statement: Here DK uses two terms: “Fifth Rootrace” and “Aryan Race.” The most likely explanation is that the former is literally and generically the Fifth Rootrace as a whole, and the latter (Aryan) is the Fifth Subrace of the Fifth Rootrace that came into existence 100,000 years ago. Also consider: “When I use the word "race" I deal not with man-made or
pseudo-scientific differentiations of nations and races or types. I deal
with a state of consciousness which is the Aryan or mental consciousness
...”(22) “From the angle of occultism, history only covers the emergence of those cultures and civilisations which are called the Fifth Rootrace, only a small part of it being recognised as Aryan; the latter is simply a modern and scientific nomenclature covering a small period of modern history. The Aryan cycle covers the period of the relation between groups and nations though positing (as a necessary hypothesis) previous but unknown cycles of human living wherein primitive man roamed the earth; or positing sometimes the existence of previous civilisations which have completely disappeared, leaving behind them faint traces of ancient organised civilisations and cultural remains, plus indications of interworld relationships of which there is no positive proof; these, it is suggested, must have existed owing to the similarity of architecture, language roots, traditions and the myths of religions.”(23) From the above quotes we could surmise that DK is referring to Aryan from both the racial and consciousness angles, however, we are now at the midpoint of the Fifth (Teutonic) Subrace of the Fifth Rootrace. For reasoning on dates for the Fifth Rootrace, see Appendix III. For the most up to date speculations, see The Hidden History of Humanity by this author. 1. The Externalisation of the Hierarchy. Alice A. Bailey. p.589 2. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, Alice A. Bailey. p.738. 3 3. A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, Alice A. Bailey. pp.440, 792:
4. Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients Demonstrated, Samson A. Mackey. (Wizards Bookshelf, MN 1973) 5. The Secret Doctrine I, H.P. Blavatsky. p.654. See also, Collected Writings XIV, p.365. 6. Mathematics of the Cosmic Mind, Plummer. Diagram dates do not correspond to author’s speculations. 7. Note, in reference to the earlier quote of “100 years of Brahma”, a Mahayuga of 4,320,000 multiplied by 1000 = 4,320,000,000 years – only ‘One Day of Brahma’. Also, 864,000 + 216,000 (half a Kali Yuga) = 1,080,000 years. 8. The Secret Doctrine I, H.P. Blavatsky. p.435. 9. The Secret Doctrine II, H.P. Blavatsky.p.432. 10. Esoteric Astrology, Alice Bailey, p. 682 11. The Secret Doctrine II, H.P. Blavatsky. p.330. 12. The Secret Doctrine II, H.P. Blavatsky.p.435. 13. The Secret Doctrine I, H.P. Blavatsky. p.649. 14. The Secret Doctrine I, H.P. Blavatsky. p.650. 15. Table adapted from The Secret Doctrine II, H.P. Blavatsky. p.300. 16. The “rounds” are enormous cycles of time within which the Yugas are measured. There are seven rounds of evolution for each planetary globe in a ‘chain’: 308,448,000 years. See Hidden History of Humanity, Phillip Lindsay. 17. Branchraces are adapted from Life and its Spirals by E.W. Preston. 18. Esoteric Psychology I, Alice A. Bailey. p.316. 19. The Secret Doctrine II, H.P. Blavatsky. p.434. 21. Initiation Human and Solar, Alice A. Bailey. p.41. 22. The Rays and the Initiations, Alice A. Bailey. p.593. 23. The Rays and the Initiations, Alice A. Bailey. p.559.
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