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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2 [[Vol. 2, Page]] 180 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. STANZA VIII. EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMAL MAMMALIANS. -- THE FIRST FALL. ------- §§ (28) How the first mammals were produced. (29) A quasi-Darwinian Evolution. (30) The animals get solid bodies. (31) Their separation into sexes. (32) The first sin of the mindless men. --------------------- 28. F ROM THE DROPS OF SWEAT (a); FROM THE RESIDUE OF THE SUBSTANCE; MATTER FROM DEAD BODIES AND ANIMALS OF THE WHEEL BEFORE ( previous, Third Round ); AND FROM CAST-OFF DUST; THE FIRST ANIMALS ( of this Round ) WERE PRODUCED. ( a ) The Occult doctrine maintains that, in this Round, the mammalians were a later work of evolution than man. Evolution proceeds in cycles. The great Manvantaric cycle of Seven Rounds, beginning in the First Round with mineral, vegetable, and animal, brings its evolutionary work on the descending arc to a dead stop in the middle of the Fourth Race, at the close of the first half of the Fourth Round. It is on our Earth, then, (the Fourth sphere and the lowest) and in the present Round, that this middle point has been reached. And since the Monad has passed, after its "first inmetallization" on Globe A, through the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds in every degree of the three states of matter, except the last degree of the third or solid state, which it reached only at the " mid-point of evolution " it is but logical and natural that at the beginning of the Fourth Round on Globe D, Man should be the first to appear; and also that his frame should be of the most tenuous matter that is compatible with objectivity. To make it still clearer: if the Monad begins its cycle of incarnations through the three objective kingdoms on the descending curved line, it has necessarily to enter on the re-ascending curved line of the sphere as a man also. On the descending arc it is the spiritual which is gradually transformed into the material. On the middle line of the base, Spirit and Matter are equilibrized in Man. On the ascending arc, Spirit is slowly re-asserting itself at the expense of the physical, or matter, so that, at the close of the seventh Race of the Seventh Round, the Monad will find itself as [[Vol. 2, Page]] 181 MEN, THE PROGENITORS OF ANIMALS. free from matter and all its qualities as it was in the beginning; having gained in addition the experience and wisdom, the fruition of all its personal lives, without their evil and temptations. This order of evolution is found also in Genesis ( ch. 1 and 2) if one reads it in its true esoteric sense, for chapter i. contains the history of the first Three Rounds, as well as that of the first Three Races of the Fourth, up to that moment when Man is called to conscious life by the Elohim of Wisdom. In the first chapter, animals, whales and fowls of the air, are created before the androgyne Adam.* In the second, Adam (the sexless) comes first, and the animals only appear after him. Even the state of mental torpor and unconsciousness of the first two races, and of the first half of the Third Race, is symbolized, in the second chapter of Genesis, by the deep sleep of Adam. It was the dreamless sleep of mental inaction, the slumber of the Soul and Mind, which was meant by that "sleep," and not at all the physiological process of differentiation of sexes, as a learned French theorist (M. Naudin) imagined. The Puranas, the Chaldean and Egyptian fragments, and also the Chinese traditions, all show an agreement with the Secret Doctrine as to the process and order of evolution. We find in them the corroboration of almost all our teaching. For instance: the statement concerning the oviparous mode of procreation of the Third Race, and even a hint at a less innocent mode of the procreation of the first mammal forms, "gigantic, transparent, dumb and monstrous they were," says the Commentary. Study the stories of the several Rishis and their multifarious progeny; e.g ., Pulastya is the father of all the Serpents and Nagas -- the oviparous brood; Kasyapa was grandsire, through his wife Tamra, of the birds and of Garuda, king of the feathered tribe; while by his wife Surabhi, he was the parent of cows and buffaloes, etc., etc. In the Secret Doctrine, the first Nagas -- beings wiser than Serpents -- are the "Sons of Will and Yoga," born before the complete separation of the sexes, "matured in the man-bearing eggs** produced by the power (Kriyasakti) of the holy sages" of the early Third Race.*** [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- *An allegorical reference to the "Sacred Animals" of the Zodiac and other heavenly bodies. Some Kabalists see in them the prototypes of the animals. ** In "Hesiod," Zeus creates his third race of men out of ash-trees. In the "Popol Vuh" the Third Race of men is created out of the tree Tzita and the marrow of the reed called Sibac. But Sibac means "egg" in the mystery language of the Artufas (or Initiation caves). In a report sent in 1812 to the Cortes by Don Baptista Pino it is said: "All the Pueblos have their Artufas -- so the natives call subterranean rooms with only a single door where they (secretly) assemble. . . . . These are impenetrable temples . . . . and the doors are always closed to the Spaniards. . . . . They adore the Sun and Moon . . . . fire and the great SNAKE (the creative power), whose eggs are called Sibac. " *** There is a notable difference esoterically between the words Sarpa and Naga, [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol. 2, Page]] 182 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. ". . . . . In these were incarnated the Lords of the three (upper) worlds, the various classes of Rudras, who had been Tushitas, who had been Jayas, who are Adityas ;" for, as explained by Parasara, "There are a hundred appellations of the immeasurably mighty Rudras." Some of the descendants of the primitive Nagas, the Serpents of Wisdom, peopled America, when its continent arose during the palmy days of the great Atlantis, (America being the Patala or Antipodes of Jambu-Dwipa, not of Bharata-Varsha).