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Revision as of 13:52, 4 November 2026
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vol. title: vol. period: 1882 pages in vol.: 174 |
4, NEW BRIDGE STREET,
LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C.
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LETTERS ON THEOSOPHY.
[There appeared in the Theosophist of last month a paper—“Fragments of Occult Truth” (No. IV.)—which dealt with the evolution of man. To my great regret it was found impossible to transfer it to these columns. It is equally impossible to present any intelligible summary of its contents. I can but hope that when these letters—the most able and clear presentation of truth from the point of view occupied by the writer and those whom he represents that we have yet had—are gathered into a volume, all who interest themselves in these matters will find opportunity of studying them consecutively. I may say, however, that the broad idea presented is that the evolution of man is not a process carried out on this planet alone, but is effected through various lives on various planets. This earth is but a link in a mighty chain of worlds, through which all individual spiritual entities have, alike, to pass. These worlds differing in their essential conditions of existence provide the spirit with various schools of training. On this earth, where spirit and matter are pretty evenly balanced, we have one set of conditions, low in the scale of progression. In other worlds, where spirit predominates, we have training of another sort. Evolution is accomplished by a “spiral” progress through these worlds, and is so far from being complete that the man of the future will hold a position in respect to us similar to that which we hold with respect to the ape of the Darwinian. This is the broad idea which is strikingly elaborated in the paper to which I am referring. The reader must, for the present, be referred to it for further information. What I have written is sufficient to make intelligible what follows.—M. A. (Oxon).]
When we come to examine the evolution of man on our own planet the explanation has to be drawn out on a larger scale than that which served for a sketch of the whole cosmogony. Our career on the preceding planets of the descending series is, for the present, over and done with. Few of us know enough of our lives there to be curious about details. But here, the phenomena of the world about us, and the period we are passing through are all replete with interest. Our wish would be to get explanations of the conditions out of which these have originated, and of the results to which they are tending, that should be as enlarged and precise as our knowledge of the actual present. But, in truth, an explanation on that scale of the phenomena immediately preceding and immediately following our present life would evidently require an exhaustive knowledge of all natural laws and operations lying outside the physical group we have grown familiar with. And the exposition of this knowledge would involve the complete development of sciences, the very alphabet of which is hidden from the world as yet; in short, it is no less impossible to comprehend all Nature’s detail—the infinitely little—completely, than it is to fathom the infinitely great. But just as the principles of evolution carried on through the series of worlds, of which our planet is one, have been found susceptible of an explanation, which, if not minute, is sufficiently definite to be intelligible, so it is possible now to sketch on a somewhat larger scale, corresponding to the nearer approach of the subject, the process of evolution carried on in the case of this single planet. The area of Nature to be dealt with is less enormous, and, therefore, a treatment of its phenomena down a corresponding level of detail gives us a closer insight into the process under investigation.
And a striking illustration of the uniformities of Nature is brought out by the first glance at the occult doctrine in reference to the development of man on the earth. The outline of the design is the same as the outline of the more comprehensive design covering the whole chain of worlds. The inner details of this world, as regards its units of construction, are the same as the inner details of the larger organism, of which this world itself is a unit. That is to say, the development of humanity on this earth is accomplished by means of successive waves of development which correspond to the successive worlds in the great planetary chain. The great tide of human life, be it remembered—for that has been already set forth—sweeps round the whole career of worlds in successive waves. These primary growths of humanity may be conveniently spoken of as Rounds. We must not forget that the individual units constituting each round in turn are identically the same as regards their higher principles—that is, that the individualities on the earth during Round 1 come back again after completing their travels round the whole series of worlds and constitute Round 2, and so on. But the point to which special attention should be drawn here is that the individual unit, having arrived at any given planet of the series in the course of any given Round, does not merely touch that planet and pass on to the next. Before passing on he has to live through a series of races on that planet. And this fact suggests the outline of the fabric which will presently develop itself in the reader’s mind, and exhibits that similarity of design on the part of the one world as compared with the whole series, to which attention has already been drawn. As the complete scheme of nature that we belong to is worked out by means of a series of Rounds sweeping through all the worlds, so the development of humanity on each world is worked out by a series of races developed within the limits of each world in turn.
It is time now to make the working of this law clearer by coming to the actual figures which have to do with the evolution of our doctrine. It would have been premature to begin with them, but as soon as the idea of a system of worlds in a chain, and of life-evolution on each through a series of re-births, is satisfactorily grasped, the further examination of the laws at work will be greatly facilitated by precise reference to the actual number of worlds, and the actual number of rounds and races, required to accomplish the whole purpose of the system. For the whole duration of the system is as certainly limited in time, be it remembered, as the life of a single man. Probably not limited to any definite number of years set irrevocably from the commencement, but that which has a beginning progresses onwards towards an end. The life of a man, leaving accidents quite out of the account, is a terminable period, and the life of a world-system leads up to a final consummation. The vast periods of time concerned in the life of a world-system dazzle the imagination, as a rule, but still they are measurable; they are divisible into sub-periods of various kinds, and these have a definite number.
By what prophetic instinct Shakespeare pitched upon seven as the number which suited his fantastic classification of the ages of man, is a question with which we need not be much concerned, but certain it is that he could not have made a more felicitous choice. In periods of sevens the evolution of the race of man may be traced, and the actual number of the objective worlds which constitute our system, and of which the Earth is one, is seven also. Remember, the occult scientists know this as a fact, just as the physical scientists know for a fact that the spectrum consists of seven colours, and the musical scale of seven tones. There are seven kingdoms of nature, not three, as modern science has imperfectly classified them. Man belongs to a kingdom distinctly separate from that of the animals, including beings in a higher state of organisation than that which manhood has familiarised us with as yet; and below the mineral kingdom there are three others which science in the West knows nothing about; but this branch of the subject may be set aside for the present. It is mentioned merely to shew the regular descent of the divisions in nature.
Man, returning to the kingdom we are most interested in, is evolved in a series of Rounds (progressions round the series of worlds), and seven of these Rounds have to be accomplished before the destinies of our system are worked out. The Round which is going on at present is the fourth. These are considerations of the utmost possible interest connected with precise knowledge on these points, because each Round is, as it were, specially allotted to the predominance of one of the seven principles in man, and in the regular order of their upward gradation. But here, again, is a realm of inquiry that for the present can only be glanced at.
An individual unit arriving on a planet for the first time in the course of a Round, has to work through seven races on that <... continues on page 14-77 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ Letters on Theosophy. No. III. by unknown author (signed as A. P. S.), Light, November18,1882; introduction signed M.A.(Oxon.); terminal To be continued refers to the letter series. Blue curved strokes lie to the left of the letter’s heading. Their writer has not been identified.
Sources
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Light, v. 2, No. 98, November 18, 1882, pp. 518-519