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§§ (22) The evolution of the three races continued. (23) The second race create the Third and perishes.
- Then the Second evolved the Sweat-Born, the Third (Race ). The sweat grew, its drops grew, and the drops became hard and round. The Sun warmed it ; the Moon cooled and shaped it ; the Wind fed it until its ripeness. The white swan from the starry vault (the Moon), overshadowed the big drop. The egg of the future race, the Man-Swan (Hamsa ) of the later Third (a). First Male-Female, then Man and Woman (b).
(a) The text of the Stanza clearly implies that the human embryo was nourished ab extra by Cosmic forces, and that the “ Father-Mother ” furnished apparently the germ that ripened : in all probability a “ sweat-born egg,” to be hatched out, in some mysterious way, disconnected from the “ double ” parent. It is comparatively easy to conceive of an oviparous humanity, since even now man is, in one sense, “ egg-born.” Magendie, moreover, in his Précis Elémentaire de Physiologie, citing “ a case where the umbilical cord was ruptured and perfectly cicatrized,” yet the infant was born alive, pertinently asks, “ How was the circulation carried on in this organ ? ” On the next page he says : “ Nothing is at present known respecting the use of digestion in the fœtus ;” and respecting its nutrition, propounds this query : “ What, then, can we say of the nutrition of the fœtus ? Physiological works contain only vague conjectures on this point.” “ Ah, but,” the sceptic may urge, “ Magendie’s book belongs to the last generation, and Science has since made such strides that his stigma of ignorance can no longer be fixed upon the profession.” Indeed ; then let us turn to a very great authority upon Physiology, viz., Sir M. Foster (Text-Book of Physiology, third edition, 1879, p. 623) ; and to the disadvantage of modern Science we shall find him saying, “ Concerning the rise and development of the functional activities of the embryo, our knowledge is almost a blank. We know scarcely anything about the various steps by which the primary fundamental qualities of the protoplasm of the ovum are differentiated into the complex phenomena which we have attempted in
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this book to explain.” The students of Trin. Coll. Cantab. will now kindly draw a veil before the statue of Hygeia and bandage the eyes of the busts of Galen and Hippocrates, lest they look reproachfully at their degenerate descendants. One further fact we must note. Sir M. Foster is discreetly silent about the case of the ruptured umbilical cord cited by his great French confrère.
This is a very curious statement as explained in the Commentaries. To make it clear : The First Race having created the Second by “ budding,” as just explained, the Second Race gives birth to the Third — which itself is separated into three distinct divisions, consisting of men differently procreated. The first two of these are produced by an oviparous method, presumably unknown to modern Natural History. While the early sub-races of the Third Humanity procreated their species by a kind of exudation of moisture or vital fluid, the drops of which coalescing formed an oviform ball — or shall we say egg ? — which served as an extraneous vehicle for the generation therein of a fœtus and child, the mode of procreation by the later races changed, in its results at all events. The little ones of the earlier races were entirely sexless — shapeless even for all one knows *; but those of the later races were born androgynous. It is in the Third Race that the separation of sexes occurred. From being previously a-sexual, Humanity became distinctly hermaphrodite or bi-sexual ; and finally the man-bearing eggs began to give birth, gradually and almost imperceptibly in their evolutionary development, first, to Beings in which one sex predominated over the other, and, finally, to distinct men and women. And now let us search for corroboration of these statements in the religious legends of East and West. Let us take the “ Egg-born Race ” first. Think of Kasyapa, the Vedic sage, and the most prolific of creators. He was the son of Marichi, Brahmâ’s mind-born son ; and he is made to become the father of the Nagas, or Serpents, among other beings. Exoterically, the Nagas are semi-divine beings which have a human face and the tail of a serpent. Yet there was a race of Nagas, said to be a thousand in number only, born or rather sprung from Kadra, Kasyapa’s wife, for the purpose of peopling Pâtâla, which is undeniably America, as will be shown ; and there was a Naga-Dwipa, one of the seven divisions of Bhârata-Varsha, India, inhabited by a people bearing the same name, who are allowed, even by some Orientalists, to be historical, and to have left many a trace behind them to this day.
Now the point most insisted upon at present is that, whatever origin be claimed for man, his evolution took place in this order : (1) Sexless, as all the earlier forms are ; (2) then, by a natural transition, he became,
* See the “ Timæus.”
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“ a solitary hermaphrodite,” a bi-sexual being ; and (3) finally separated and became what he is now. Science teaches us that all the primitive forms, though sexless, “ still retained the power of undergoing the processes of A-Sexual multiplication ; ” why, then, should man be excluded from that law of Nature ? Bi-sexual reproduction is an evolution, a specialized and perfected form on the scale of matter of the fissiparous act of reproduction. Occult teachings are pre-eminently panspermic, and the early history of humanity is hidden only “ from ordinary mortals ; ” nor is the history of the primitive Races buried from the Initiates in the tomb of time, as it is for profane science. Therefore, supported on the one hand by that science which shows to us progressive development and an internal cause for every external modification, as a law in Nature ; and, on the other hand, by an implicit faith in the wisdom — we may say pansophia even — of the universal traditions gathered and preserved by the Initiates, who have perfected them into an almost faultless system — thus supported, we venture to state the doctrine clearly.
In an able article, written some fifteen years ago, our learned and respected friend Prof. Alex. Wilder, of New York, shows the absolute logic and necessity of believing “ The Primeval Race Double-Sexed,” and gives a number of scientific reasons for it. * He argues firstly, “ that a large part of the vegetable creation exhibits the phenomenon of bisexuality . . . the Linnaean classification enumerating thus almost all plants. This is the case in the superior families of the vegetable kingdoms as much as in the lower forms, from the Hemp to the Lombardy Poplar and Ailanthus. In the animal kingdom, in insect life, the moth generates a worm, as in the Mysteries the great secret was expressed : “ Taurus Draconem genuit, et Taurum Draco.” The coral-producing family, which, according to Agassiz, ‘ has spent many hundreds of thousands of years, during the present geological period, in building out the peninsula of Florida . . . . .produce their offspring from themselves like the buds and ramifications in a tree.’ Bees are somewhat in the same line . . . . The Aphides or plant lice keep house like Amazons, and virgin parents perpetuate the Race for ten successive generations.”
What say the old sages, the philosopher-teachers of antiquity. Aristophanes speaks thus on the subject in Plato’s “ Banquet ” : “ Our nature of old was not the same as it is now. It was androgynous, the form and name partaking of, and being common to both the male and female. Their bodies were round, and the manner of their running
* See Extracts from that Essay in “ The Theosophist,” of February, 1883.
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circular. * They were terrible in force and strength and had prodigious ambition. Hence Zeus divided each of them into two, making them weaker ; Apollo, under his direction, closed up the skin.”
Meshia and Meshiane were but a single individual with the old Persians. “ They also taught that man was the product of the tree of life, growing in androgynous pairs, till they were separated at a subsequent modification of the human form. † ”
In the Toleduth (generation) of Adam, the verse “ God created (bara, brought forth) man in his image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them,” if read esoterically will yield the true sense, viz. : “ The Elohim (Gods) brought forth from themselves (by modification) man in their image . . . . created they him (collective humanity, or Adam), male and female created he (collective deity) them.” ‡ This will show the esoteric point. The sexless Race was their first production, a modification of and from themselves, the pure spiritual existences ; and this was Adam solus. Thence came the second Race : Adam-Eve or Jod-Heva, inactive androgynes ; and finally the Third, or the “ Separating Hermaphrodite,” Cain and Abel, who produce the Fourth, Seth-Enos, etc. It is that Third, the last semi-spiritual race, which was also the last vehicle of the divine and innate Wisdom, ingenerate in the Enochs, the Seers of that Mankind. The Fourth, which had tasted from the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil — Wisdom united already to earthy, and therefore impure, intelligence § — had consequently to acquire that Wisdom by initiation and great struggle. And the union of Wisdom and Intelligence, the former ruling the latter, is called in the Hermetic books “ the God possessing the double fecundity of the two sexes.” Mystically Jesus was held to be man-woman. See also in the Orphich ymns, sung during the Mysteries, we find :
* Compare Ezekiel’s vision (chap. i) of the four divine beings who “ had the likeness of a man ” and yet had the appearance of a wheel, “ when they went they went upon their four sides for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheel.”
† See Prof. Wilder’s Essay “ The Primeval Race Double-Sexed.”
‡ Eugibinus, a Christian, and the Rabbis Samuel, Manasseh ben Israel, and Maimonides taught that “ Adam had two faces and one person, and from the beginning he was both male and female — male on one side and female on the other (like Manu’s Brahmâ), but afterwards the parts were separated.” The one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm of David recited by Rabbi Jeremiah ben Eliazar is evidence of this. “ Thou hast fashioned me behind and before,” not beset as in the Bible, which is absurd and meaningless, and this shows, as Prof. Wilder thinks, “ that the primeval form of mankind was androgynous.”
§ See the union of Chochmah, Wisdom, with Binah, Intelligence, or Jehovah, the Demiurge, called Understanding in the Proverbs of Solomon, ch. vii. Unto men Wisdom (divine occult Wisdom) crieth : “ Oh, ye simple, understand Wisdom ; and ye fools, be of an understanding heart.” It is spirit and matter, the nous and the psyche ; of the latter of which St. James says that it is “ earthly, sensual, and devilish.”
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“ Zeus is a male, Zeus is an immortal maid.” The Egyptian Ammon was the goddess Neïth, in his other half. Jupiter has female breasts, Venus is bearded in some of her statues, and Ila, the goddess, is also Su-Dyumna, the god, as Vaivasvata’s progeny
.
“ The name Adam,” says Professor A. Wilder, “ or man, itself implies this double form of existence. It is identical with Athamas, or Thomas (Tamil Tam), which is rendered by the Greek Didumos, a twin ; if, therefore, the first woman was formed subsequently to the first man, she must, as a logical necessity, be ‘ taken out of man ’ . . . and the side which the Elohim had taken from man, ‘ made he a woman ’ (Gen. ii.). The Hebrew word here used is Tzala, which bears the translation we have given. It is easy to trace the legend in Berosus, who says that Thalatth (the Omoroca, or Lady of Urka) was the beginning of creation. She was also Melita, the queen of the Moon. . . . The two twin births of Genesis, that of Cain and Abel, and of Esau and Jacob, shadow the same idea. The name ‘ Hebel ’ is the same as Eve, and its characteristic seems to be feminine,” continues the author. “ Unto thee shall be his desire,” said the Lord God to Cain, “ and thou shalt rule over him.” The same language had been uttered to Eve : “ Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” . . .
Thus the pristine bi-sexual unity of the human Third Root-Race is an axiom in the Secret Doctrine. Its virgin individuals were raised to “ Gods,” because that Race represented their “ divine Dynasty.” The moderns are satisfied with worshipping the male heroes of the Fourth Race, who created gods after their own sexual image, whereas the gods of primeval mankind were “ male and female.”
As stated in Book I., the humanities developed coördinately, and on parallel lines with the four Elements, every new Race being physiologically adapted to meet the additional element. Our Fifth Race is rapidly approaching the Fifth Element — call it interstellar ether, if you will — which has more to do, however, with psychology than with physics. We men have learned to live in every climate, whether frigid or tropical, but the first two Races had nought to do with climate, nor were they subservient to any temperature or change therein. And thus, we are taught, men lived down to the close of the Third Root-Race, when eternal spring reigned over the whole globe, such as is now enjoyed by the inhabitants of Jupiter ; a “ world,” says M. Flammarion, “ which is not subject like our own to the vicissitudes of seasons nor to abrupt alternations of temperature, but which is enriched with all the treasures of eternal spring.” (“ Pluralité des Mondes,” p. 69.) Those astronomers who maintain that Jupiter is in a molten condition, in our sense of the term, are invited to settle their dispute with this learned French
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Astronomer. * It must, however, be always borne in mind that the “ eternal spring ” referred to is only a condition cognised as such by the Jovians. It is not “ spring ” as we know it. In this reservation is to be found the reconciliation between the two theories here cited. Both embrace partial truths.
It is thus a universal tradition that mankind has evolved gradually into its present shape from an almost transparent condition of texture, and neither by miracle nor by sexual intercourse. Moreover, this is in full accord with the ancient philosophies ; from those of Egypt and India with their Divine Dynasties down to that of Plato. And all these universal beliefs must be classed with the “ presentiments ” and “ obstinate conceptions,” some of them ineradicable, in popular faiths. Such beliefs, as remarked by Louis Figuier, are “ frequently the outcome of the wisdom and observation of an infinite number of generations of men.” For, “ a tradition which has an uniform and universal existence,
* An hypothesis evolved in 1881 by Mr. Mattieu Williams seems to have impressed Astronomers but little. Says the author of “ The Fuel of the Sun,” in Knowledge, Dec. 23, 1881 : “ Applying now the researches of Dr. Andrews to the conditions of Solar existence . . . I conclude that the Sun has no nucleus, either solid, liquid, or gaseous, but is composed of dissociated matter in the critical state, surrounded, first, by a flaming envelope, due to the recombination of the dissociated matter, and outside of this, by another envelope of vapours due to this combination.”
This is a novel theory to be added to other hypotheses, all scientific and orthodox. The meaning of the “ critical state ” is explained by Mr. M. Williams in the same journal (Dec. 9, 1881), in an article on “ Solids, Liquids, and Gases.” Speaking of an experiment by Dr. Andrews on carbonic acid, the scientist says that “ when 88° is reached, the boundary between liquid and gas vanished ; liquid and gas have blended into one mysterious intermediate fluid ; an indefinite fluctuating something is there filling the whole of the tube — an etherealised liquid or a visible gas. Hold a red-hot poker between your eye and the light ; you will see an upflowing wave of movement of what appears like liquid air. The appearance of the hybrid fluid in the tube resembles this, but is sensibly denser, and evidently stands between the liquid and gaseous states of matter, as pitch or treacle stands between solid and liquid.”
The temperature at which this occurs has been named by Dr. Andrews the “ critical temperature ” ; here the gaseous and the liquid states are “ continuous,” and it is probable that all other substances capable of existing in both states have their own particular critical temperatures.
Speculating further upon this “ critical ” state, Mr. Mattieu Williams emits some quite occult theories about Jupiter and other planets. He says : “ Our notions of solids, liquids, and gases are derived from our experiences of the state of matter here upon this Earth. Could we be removed to another planet, they would be curiously changed. On Mercury water would rank as one of the condensible gases ; on Mars, as a fusible solid ; but what on Jupiter ? ”
“ Recent observations justify us in regarding this as a miniature sun, with an external envelope of cloudy matter, apparently of partially-condensed water, but red-hot, or probably still hotter within. His vaporous atmosphere is evidently of enormous depth, and the force of gravitation being on his visible outer surface two-and-a-half
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has all the weight of scientific testimony.” * And there is more than one such tradition in the Purânic allegories, as has been shown. Moreover, the doctrine that the first Race of mankind was formed out of the chhayas (astral images) of the Pitris, is fully corroborated in the Zohar. “ In the Tzalam (shadow image) of Elohim (the Pitris), was made Adam (man). (Cremona, Ed. iii., 76a ; Brody, Ed. iii., 159a ; “ Qabbalah,” Isaac Myer, p. 420.)
It has been repeatedly urged as an objection that, however high the degree of metaphysical thought in ancient India, yet the old Egyptians had nothing but crass idolatry and zoolatry to boast of ; Hermes, as alleged, being the work of mystic Greeks who lived in Egypt. To this, one answer can be given — a direct proof that the Egyptians believed in the Secret Doctrine is, that it was taught to them at Initiation. Let the objectors open the “ Eclogæ Physicæ et Ethicæ ” of Stobæus, the Greek compiler of ancient fragments, who lived in the fifth century, A.D. The following is a transcription by him of an old Hermetic fragment, showing the Egyptian theory of the Soul. Translated word for word, it says : —
“ From one Soul, that of all, spring all the Souls, which spread themselves as if purposely distributed through the world. These souls undergo many transformations ; those which are already creeping creatures turn into aquatic animals ; from these aquatic animals are derived land animals ; and from the latter the birds. From the beings who live aloft in the air (heaven) men are born. On reaching that
times greater than that on our Earth’s surface, the atmospheric pressure, in descending below this visible surface, must soon reach that at which the vapour of water would be brought to its critical condition. Therefore we may infer that the oceans of Jupiter are neither of frozen, liquid, nor gaseous water, but are oceans or atmospheres of critical water. If any fish or birds swim or fly therein, they must be very critically organized.”
As the whole mass of Jupiter is 300 times greater than that of the Earth, and its compressing energy towards the centre proportional to this, its materials, if similar to those of the Earth, and no hotter, would be considerably more dense, and the whole planet would have a higher specific gravity ; but we know by the movement of its satellites that, instead of this, its specific gravity is less than a fourth of that of the Earth. This justifies the conclusion that it is intensely hot ; for even hydrogen, if cold, would become denser than Jupiter under such pressure.
“ As all elementary substances may exist as solids, liquids, or gases, or, critically, according to the conditions of temperature and pressure, I am justified in hypothetically concluding that Jupiter is neither a solid, a liquid, nor a gaseous planet, but a critical planet, or an orb composed internally of associated elements in the critical state, and surrounded by a dense atmosphere of their vapours and those of some of their compounds such as water. The same reasoning applies to Saturn and other large and rarified lanets.”
It is gratifying to see how scientific imagination approaches every year more closely to the borderland of our occult teachings.
* “ The Day After Death,” p. 23.
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status of men, the Souls receive the principle of (conscious) immortality, become Spirits, then pass into the choir of gods.”