To return to "Esoteric Buddhism." It is there stated with regard to the enormous period intervening between the mineral epoch on Globe A, and the man-epoch,* that: "The full development of the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] Earth as a plank of salvation for the personalities in which it indwells.
It is for the latter to cling to it; and thus partaking of its divine nature, obtain immortality.
Left to itself the Monad will cling to no one; but, like the "plank," be drifted away to another incarnation by the unresting current of evolution.
* The term "Man epoch" is here used because of the necessity of giving a name to that fourth kingdom which follows the animal.
But in truth the "Man" on Globe A during the First Round is no Man, but only his prototype or dimensionless image from the astral regions.
[[Vol.
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mineral epoch on Globe A, prepares the way for the vegetable development, and, as soon as this begins, the mineral life-impulse overflows into Globe B.
Then, when the vegetable development on Globe A is complete and the animal development begins, the vegetable life-impulse overflows to Globe B, and the mineral impulse passes on to Globe C.
Then finally comes the human life-impulse on Globe A." (Page 49.) And so it goes on for three Rounds, when it slackens, and finally stops at the threshold of our Globe, at the Fourth Round; because the human period (of the true physical men to be), the seventh, is now reached.
This is evident, for as said, " .
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there are processes of evolution which precede the mineral kingdom, and thus a wave of evolution, indeed several waves of evolution, precede the mineral wave in its progress round the spheres" ( ibid ) .
And now we have to quote from another article, "The Mineral Monad" in " Five Years of Theosophy ," p.
273 et seq.
"There are seven kingdoms.
The first group comprises three degrees of elementals, or nascent centres of forces -- from the first stage of differentiation of (from) Mulaprakriti (or rather Pradhana, primordial homogeneous matter) to its third degree -- i.e.
, from full unconsciousness to semi-perception; the second or higher group embraces the kingdoms from vegetable to man; the mineral kingdom thus forming the central or turning point in the degrees of the "Monadic Essence," considered as an evoluting energy.
Three stages (sub-physical) on the elemental side; the mineral kingdom; three stages on the objective physical* side -- these are the (first or preliminary) seven links of the evolutionary chain." "Preliminary" because they are preparatory, and though belonging in fact to the natural, they yet would be more correctly described as sub-natural evolution.
This process makes a halt in its stages at the Third, at the threshold of the Fourth stage, when it becomes, on the plane of the natural evolution, the first really manward stage, thus forming with the three elemental kingdoms, the ten, the Sephirothal number.
It is at this point that begins: -- "A descent of spirit into matter equivalent to an ascent in physical [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * "Physical" here means differentiated for cosmical purposes and work; that "physical side," nevertheless, if objective to the apperception of beings from other planes, is yet quite subjective to us on our plane.
[[Vol.
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evolution; a re-ascent from the deepest depths of materiality (the mineral) towards its status quo ante , with a corresponding dissipation of concrete organism -- up to Nirvana, the vanishing point of differentiated matter." (" Five Years of Theosophy ," p.
276.) Therefore it becomes evident why that which is pertinently called in Esoteric Buddhism "Wave of Evolution," and mineral-, vegetable-, animal- and man-"impulse," stops at the door of our Globe, at its Fourth cycle or Round.
It is at this point that the Cosmic Monad (Buddhi) will be wedded to and become the vehicle of the Atmic Ray, i.e.
, it (Buddhi) will awaken to an apperception of it (Atman); and thus enter on the first step of a new septenary ladder of evolution, which will lead it eventually to the tenth (counting from the lowest upwards) of the Sephirothal tree, the Crown.
Everything in the Universe follows analogy.
"As above, so below"; Man is the microcosm of the Universe.
That which takes place on the spiritual plane repeats itself on the Cosmic plane.
Concretion follows the lines of abstraction; corresponding to the highest must be the lowest; the material to the spiritual.
Thus, corresponding to the Sephirothal Crown (or upper triad) there are the three elemental Kingdoms, which precede the Mineral (see diagram on p.
277 in Five Years of Theosophy ), and which, using the language of the Kabalists, answer in the Cosmic differentiation to the worlds of Form and Matter from the Super-Spiritual to the Archetypal.
Now what is a "Monad?" And what relation does it bear to an Atom?
The following reply is based upon the explanations given in answer to these questions in the above-cited article: "The Mineral Monad," written by the author.
"None whatever," is answered to the second question, "to the atom or molecule as existing in the scientific conception at present.
It can neither be compared with the microscopic organism, once classed among polygastric infusoria, and now regarded as vegetable, and classed among Algae; nor is it quite the Monas of the Peripatetics.
Physically or constitutionally the mineral monad differs, of course, from the human monad, which is neither physical nor can its constitution be rendered by chemical symbols and elements." In short, as the spiritual Monad is One, Universal, Boundless and Impartite, whose rays, nevertheless, form what we, in our ignorance, call the "Individual Monads" of men, [[Vol.
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so the Mineral Monad -- being at the opposite point of the circle -- is also One -- and from it proceed the countless physical atoms, which Science is beginning to regard as individualized.
Otherwise how could one account for and explain mathematically the evolutionary and spiral progress of the Four Kingdoms?
The "Monad" is the combination of the last two "principles" in man, the 6th and the 7th, and, properly speaking, the term "human monad" applies only to the dual soul (Atma-Buddhi), not to its highest spiritual vivifying Principle, Atma, alone.
But since the Spiritual Soul, if divorced from the latter (Atma) could have no existence, no being, it has thus been called .
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The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The passage describes the re-ascent 'from the deepest depths of materiality (the mineral) towards its status quo ante, with a corresponding dissipation of concrete organism -- up to Nirvana, the vanishing point of differentiated matter,' implying a return to original undifferentiated state.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage explicitly states 'As above, so below,' 'Everything in the Universe follows analogy,' 'Concretion follows the lines of abstraction; corresponding to the highest must be the lowest; the material to the spiritual,' and maps the three elemental kingdoms to the Sephirothal Crown.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the sequential development of kingdoms (mineral, vegetable, animal, human) across globes A through D over multiple rounds, describing the temporal process by which the cosmos unfolds its stages.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The passage describes individual monads as 'rays' of the One Universal Monad that can cling to the Earth as a 'plank of salvation' or be 'drifted away to another incarnation,' suggesting fragments of the divine scattered across material existence.
Naturally-existing, non-human intelligences native to a single element — earth, air, fire, or water — rather than the fourfold-composite human nature: Paracelsus's gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines; the Deva Kingdom or fairy kingdom of Western occultism, forming their own parallel kingdom capable of incarnating in or forming relationships with humans. Distinct from artificial_elemental (a manufactured thought-entity deliberately created by a single operator, not a naturally-occurring species) and animism (the general doctrine that nature-places host indwelling spirits, of which this is one specific taxonomic system organised around the four elements rather than locality).
The passage describes 'three degrees of elementals, or nascent centres of forces' from full unconsciousness to semi-perception, forming the first group of the seven kingdoms.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage describes a cascading chain from the One Monad through seven links of the evolutionary chain (three elemental degrees, mineral, three physical stages) forming a structured descent of spirit into matter.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage references 'the astral regions' as the source of the 'dimensionless image' of Man on Globe A during the First Round, and mentions 'sub-physical' stages of elemental development.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage explicitly describes 'a descent of spirit into matter equivalent to an ascent in physical evolution; a re-ascent from the deepest depths of materiality (the mineral) towards its status quo ante,' tracing the Wave of Evolution as a staged descent and complementary return.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The passage explicitly states 'Man is the microcosm of the Universe' and elaborates that what happens on the spiritual plane repeats on the cosmic plane.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The entire passage is structured around defining and distinguishing the Mineral Monad, Human Monad (Atma-Buddhi), and Cosmic/Spiritual Monad, describing the Monad as 'One, Universal, Boundless and Impartite' whose rays form individual monads.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The passage positions the Mineral Monad 'at the opposite point of the circle' from the Spiritual Monad, suggesting a structural polarity between the two extremes of the same evolutionary scale.
The diagrammatic arrangement of the ten Sephirot as a structured 'Tree of Life' mapping divine and cosmic forces.
The passage references 'the Sephirothal tree' and the Crown as the tenth (counting from the lowest upwards), situating the evolutionary process within this diagrammatic structure.
The ten attributes or emanations through which the Ein Sof (Infinite) reveals itself and creates the universe in Kabbalistic theology.
The passage explicitly references the 'Sephirothal number' (ten), the 'Sephirothal Crown (or upper triad),' and maps the three elemental kingdoms to the Crown in the Cosmic differentiation.
The passage explicitly states that 'Left to itself the Monad will cling to no one; but, like the plank, be drifted away to another incarnation by the unresting current of evolution,' describing transmigration across lives.