1, Page]] 181 A TRIPLE EVOLUTION IN NATURE.
endow the "senseless" shells, created and informed by the Pitris, with "mind" in the latter part of the Third Root-Race.
In the same way the "Monads" or Egos of the men of the seventh Round of our Earth, after our own Globes A, B, C, D, et seq.
, parting with their life-energy, will have informed and thereby called to life other laya-centres destined to live and act on a still higher plane of being -- in the same way will the Terrene "Ancestors" create those who will become their superiors.
It now becomes plain that there exists in Nature a triple evolutionary scheme, for the formation of the three periodical Upadhis ; or rather three separate schemes of evolution, which in our system are inextricably interwoven and interblended at every point.
These are the Monadic (or spiritual), the intellectual, and the physical evolutions.
These three are the finite aspects or the reflections on the field of Cosmic Illusion of ATMA, the seventh, the ONE REALITY.
1.
The Monadic is, as the name implies, concerned with the growth and development into still higher phases of activity of the Monad in conjunction with: -- 2.
The Intellectual, represented by the Manasa-Dhyanis (the Solar Devas, or the Agnishwatta Pitris) the "givers of intelligence and consciousness"* to man and: -- 3.
The Physical, represented by the Chhayas of the lunar Pitris, round which Nature has concreted the present physical body.
This body serves as the vehicle for the "growth" (to use a misleading word) and the transformations through Manas and -- owing to the accumulation of experiences -- of the finite into the INFINITE, of the transient into the Eternal and Absolute.
Each of these three systems has its own laws, and is ruled and guided by different sets of the highest Dhyanis or "Logoi." Each is represented in the constitution of man, the Microcosm of the great Macrocosm; and it is the union of these three streams in him which makes him the complex being he now is.
"Nature," the physical evolutionary Power, could never evolve intelligence unaided -- she can only create "senseless forms," as will be seen in our " A NTHROPOGENESIS." The "Lunar Monads" cannot progress, for they have not yet had sufficient touch with the forms [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Vide C ONCLUSION in Part II.
of this Book.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 182 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
created by "Nature" to allow of their accumulating experiences through its means.
It is the Manasa-Dhyanis who fill up the gap, and they represent the evolutionary power of Intelligence and Mind, the link between "Spirit" and "Matter" -- in this Round.
Also it must be borne in mind that the Monads which enter upon the evolutionary cycle upon Globe A, in the first Round, are in very different stages of development.
Hence the matter becomes somewhat complicated.
.
.
.
Let us recapitulate.
The most developed Monads (the lunar) reach the human germ-stage in the first Round; become terrestrial, though very ethereal human beings towards the end of the Third Round, remaining on it (the globe) through the "obscuration" period as the seed for future mankind in the Fourth Round, and thus become the pioneers of Humanity at the beginning of this, the Fourth Round.
Others reach the Human stage only during later Rounds, i.e.
, in the second, third, or first half of the Fourth Round.
And finally the most retarded of all, i.e.
, those still occupying animal forms after the middle turning-point of the Fourth Round -- will not become men at all during this Manwantara.
They will reach to the verge of humanity only at the close of the seventh Round to be, in their turn, ushered into a new chain after pralaya -- by older pioneers, the progenitors of humanity, or the Seed-Humanity ( Sishta ), viz., the men who will be at the head of all at the end of these Rounds.
The student hardly needs any further explanation on the part played by the fourth Globe and the fourth Round in the scheme of evolution.
From the preceding diagrams, which are applicable, mutatis mutandis , to Rounds, Globes or Races, it will be seen that the fourth member of a series occupies a unique position.
Unlike the others, the Fourth has no "sister" Globe on the same plane as itself, and it thus forms the fulcrum of the "balance" represented by the whole chain.
It is the sphere of final evolutionary adjustments, the world of Karmic scales, the Hall of Justice, where the balance is struck which determines the future course of the Monad during the remainder of its incarnations in the cycle.
And therefore it is, that, after this central turning-point has been passed in the Great Cycle, -- i.e.
, after the middle point of the Fourth Race in the Fourth Round on our Globe -- no more Monads can enter the human kingdom.
The door is closed for this Cycle and the balance struck.
For were it otherwise -- had there been a new soul [[Vol.
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created for each of the countless milliards of human beings that have passed away, and had there been no reincarnation -- it would become difficult indeed to provide room for the disembodied "Spirits;" nor could the origin and cause of suffering ever be accounted for.
It is the ignorance of the occult tenets and the enforcement of false conceptions under the guise of religious education, which have created materialism and atheism as a protest against the asserted divine order of things.
The only exceptions to the rule just stated are the "dumb races," whose Monads are already within the human stage, in virtue of the fact that these "animals" are later than, and even half descended from man, their last descendants being the anthropoid and other apes.
These "human presentments" are in truth only the distorted copies of the early humanity.
But this will receive full attention in the next Book.
As the Commentary, broadly rendered, says: -- 1 .
" Every form on earth , and every speck ( atom ) in Space strives in its efforts towards self-formation to follow the model placed for it in the ' HEAVENLY MAN.' .
.
.
Its ( the atom ' s ) involution and evolution , its external and internal growth and development , have all one and the same object -- man; man , as the highest physical and ultimate form on this earth; the MONAD, in its absolute totality and awakened condition -- as the culmination of the divine incarnations on Earth.
" 2.
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 asserts that each of the three cosmic evolutionary systems is represented in the constitution of man, making the human a legible map of the cosmic structure at every scale.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The Monads are described as finite aspects or reflections of ATMA (the ONE REALITY) that descend into matter and evolve through successive incarnations, functioning as fragments of the divine awaiting their return to the Infinite.
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 hierarchical structure of divine beings (Dhyanis, Pitris, Monads) flowing from ATMA, the ONE REALITY, with the three evolutions as finite aspects or reflections of that single source.
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 describes multiple non-physical planes of being (spiritual, intellectual, physical) with beings such as Dhyanis and Pitris operating on planes other than the purely physical, interpenetrating the material world.
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 names 'involution and evolution' of the atom and describes the structured descent of spirit (Monads) into matter through successive Rounds and Globes, with the physical body concreted around laya-centres.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage states that each of the three evolutionary systems 'is ruled and guided by different sets of the highest Dhyanis or Logoi,' using the term as mediating ordering principles.
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 that each of the three evolutionary systems 'is represented in the constitution of man, the Microcosm of the great Macrocosm,' and that the union of these three streams in man makes him the complex being he is.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The Monad is the central subject of the passage, described as the spiritual principle whose growth and development through successive phases constitutes the Monadic evolution, and as the culmination of divine incarnations on Earth.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The passage describes the Monadic evolution as the transformation 'of the finite into the INFINITE, of the transient into the Eternal and Absolute,' indicating the soul's progressive return to its divine origin.
Reincarnation is explicitly discussed: Monads enter the evolutionary cycle at different stages across Rounds, the door closes for new souls after the Fourth Round's midpoint, and the Sishta (seed-humanity) carry forward into new chains after pralaya.