APPENDIX C

THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN RACIAL TYPE

From the very outset of this book the point has been made that esotericism concerns itself really only with the evolution of consciousness. All objective forms are derived from consciousness and are therefore only of secondary importance in Nature generally. However, for the sake of “rounding out” our descriptions of how this process might work, let us spend a moment or two looking at the past anthropological history of humankind (from the viewpoint of the Ancient Wisdom tradition) as a prelude to what might perhaps lie in the future.

As otherwise mentioned in an earlier chapter, the esoteric philosophy of the Ancient Wisdom tradition posits the idea that the soul, cell, and atom are all expressions of the very same principle in Universal Nature. It is therefore quite logical that the very first proto-human forms that appeared on our planet are described by The Secret Doctrine as having been gigantic cellular entities with no limbs. The latter only developed as the consciousness within the cellular soul entity developed and caused an outward expansion within the mass of ethereal matter (the Greek hyle) contained by it, having been borrowed from the astral light of the planet. Thus these early entities were themselves very ethereal in nature to begin with, only developing progressive solidity as evolutionary development itself progressed. That same solidifying development then also caused a generally marked reduction in size.

The changing evolutionary type of our planet’s humanity has been described in modern theosophical literature (vide Blavatsky’s seminal work The Secret Doctrine) as “Root Races.” There is a sequence of seven such Races, only five of which have so far been developed. These have been given the following names:

		The First Root Race:		the Perennial Race
		The Second Race:		the Hyperborean Race
		The Third Race:		the Lemurian Race
		The Fourth Race:		the Atlantean Race
		The Fifth Race:		the Indo-Aryan (Indo-Caucasian) Race

Of these Races, perhaps the most immediately interesting is the Third Race, during which, we are told, the early progenitors of the future mammalian type not only split into two sexes but also separated from each other as the unselfconscious animal type on the one hand and self-conscious humankind on the other.1 This would suggest that, as Darwin hypothesized, man and animal both derived (in the Tertiary Age) from a common ancestor. However, one might suggest that Darwin’s concept is only partially correct, for the following reasons.

As described in chapters 1 and 2, the animal genus has only one soul—the “astral” or terrestrial soul—whereas man has two, the second being what we have described as the “Causal Soul.” The latter contains the projected emanation of the “divine spark,” which is of a vastly more evolved nature than the “lesser spark” animating the animal nature. This then endows the human being with the faculty of a dual “self ” consciousness and a highly subtle creative objectivity. In the case of the prototypal mammalian creatures of the Third (Lemurian) Race, the “astral” souls of the relative few that had evolved to sufficiently high degree were contained by the projected Causal Soul, a phenomenon brought about by the psychic work of the Kumaras, although allegorically described since.2 This resulted in the Causal nature projecting a tiny aspect of itself downward into the entity’s heart center. It was this, fundamentally, which seemingly caused the original separation of the human from the animal type.

When we consider the type of evolutionary development achieved in the various Races, we find the following correspondences as between the masses of the Race in question and its most advanced types.

Race	Racial Evolutionary Development	Most Advanced Types
First Race	Formation of the etheric double from local astral light matter.	Proto-humanoid and deva group hierarchies separate.
Second Race	Appearance of first primitive physical body types plus desire feelings and primitive emotions.	Proto-humanoid types of the First Race mutate. The devas generate the first reptile, fish, and bird forms.
Third Race	Primitive (Cyclopean) faculty of sight develops, plus first lower mental capacities appear in the most advanced types.	Separation of the sexes followed by appearance of first mammalian types in response to generation of the Causal Soul Body. Animals react against the new proto-humans with violence.
Fourth Race	First responsiveness to the Higher Mind principle by the most advanced human types.	First true human types appear. Mass devotional religion appears. Appearance of the first Mystery Schools and the formation of the Spiritual Hierarchy.
Fifth Race	First responsiveness to buddhic intuitive consciousness by the most advanced types, following fully active grasp of the Higher/Abstract Mind faculty.	Mass religion is reoriented toward scientific approach to Divinity. Externalization of the Spiritual Hierarchy takes place and new Mystery Schools founded. Humanity as a whole embarks on the Path of “accepted discipleship.”
Sixth Race	First responsiveness to monadic Will nature by the most advanced human types who thereby become Adepts of the fourth or fifth degree.	Large majority of the human race achieve initiatory third degree by the end of the Race period.
Seventh Race	Full responsiveness to kosmic influence by the most advanced human types who thereby become Manushi Buddhas.	Mass majority of the human race achieves initiatory fifth degree by the end of the Race period.

Touching on the issue of associated Egoic Ray types during the earlier Races of humankind, we are told that in later Lemurian times (following individualization) approximately 75 percent were of Second Ray quality while the other roughly 25 percent were of culture-orientated Third Ray association, with a very few First Ray types also being present.3

In Atlantean times, however, we are further told, a very large influx of First Ray types came in (before the “door” was closed to the animal kingdom), thereby altering the proportions (and the overall culture) very markedly. So it seems that about 80 percent of those entering the human evolutionary process at that stage were of the First Ray while only 20 percent were Second Ray types.4 At the same time, others of a Third Ray type were seemingly still entering our planetary scheme from the subtler states of the dying Moon Chain. With all this in mind, it is perhaps unsurprising that Atlantean civilization came to a rapidly progressive and cataclysmic end in conjunction with the development of a completely new type of consciousness and, consequent upon this, a prospectively new (semi-mentally orientated) racial type.

By virtue of the principle of concentration of consciousness leading to evolutionary development, it naturally follows that the planetary Oversoul began to reduce in size from the beginning of the current major (“Round”) cycle, as did the physical planet itself. Consequently, the first gigantic cellular entities, which comprised the future mammalian types of the animal and human kingdom also gradually diminished in size, in sympathy, as that evolutionary development progressed. Thus, so we are told, by the time of the mid-Third (Lemurian) Race, the average height of proto-humankind was around thirty-three feet, reducing by around half in the next Atlantean cycle and then again by half or more in the present Indo-Caucasian cycle.

As the soul consciousness of man is now again expanding, with a far greater degree of quality inherent in his nature, one presumes that the most advanced human types of the next Race will be of equivalent height and quality of appearance, as well as quality of mind. One must again stress, however, that appearances are naturally misleading; thus, to spend much time considering them is a complete and utter waste of effort. While mentioning the Third (Lemurian) Race, the following highly important quote from Bailey’s work A Treatise on Cosmic Fire should be noted specifically in relation to the first appearance of self-conscious humankind.

The advent of the Lords of the Flame [Kumaras], [and] the electrical storm which ushered in the period of man [i.e., self-conscious protohumanity], was distinguished by disaster, chaos and the destruction of many in the third kingdom of Nature. The spark of Mind was implanted and the strength of its vibration and the immediate effect of its presence caused the [widespread] death of the animal form, thus producing the immediate possibility of the newly vitalised Causal Bodies vibrating to such purpose that new [specifically human] physical vehicles were taken.5

These “Causal Bodies” or “Causal Souls” are as described in the earlier chapters of this book. As G. R. S. Mead reminds us, according to St. Paul, the yet higher spiritual body of man (the “body of glory”) is not a body of pure spirit but a body capable by its purity of manifesting the immediate power of the spirit.6 In the first place—that is, when the first self-conscious humanity appeared in Lemurian times—these same ethereal “bodies” would have been pure and clear, their beautiful coloring and radiance only appearing after millions of years of evolutionary development leading to initiation on the spiritual Path.

It is otherwise worth mentioning the further suggestion that, coincident with the huge influx of spiritual energy now influencing our planet—involving a crisis as great as the actual individualization of man in Lemurian times—a new kingdom of Nature will (in due course) emerge into objectivity as a direct result.7 That new (fifth) kingdom will comprise a far more spiritualized type of humanity whose consciousness is entirely higher mental-cum intuitional-cum will-orientated in nature (i.e., that of the lesser Adept), although itself a direct progression from the present emotional-mental nature of our humanity. The result of this progression will, quite naturally, involve an initiation of our planetary Life as a whole, thereby rendering it esoterically “sacred” and thus bringing about a more direct association with the Greater Adept Brotherhood of the star Sirius, hence also with the Life and consciousness of the Greater Logos.8 With that in mind, it is again very clear why our present Adept Brotherhood should wish to inaugurate in humanity’s consciousness a completely new but entirely rational perspective as to the actual nature of Divinity.