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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2 [[Vol. 2, Page]] 191 THE CAUSE OF DEGENERATION. STANZA IX. THE FINAL EVOLUTION OF MAN. ------- §§ (33) The creators repent. (34) They atone for their neglect. (35) Men become endowed with minds. (36) The fourth race develops perfect speech. (37) Every androgynous unit is separated and becomes bisexual. --------------------- 33. S EEING WHICH ( the sin committed with the animals ), THE L HAS ( the spirits, the " Sons of Wisdom ") WHO HAD NOT BUILT MEN ( who had refused to create ), WEPT, SAYING: -- ------- 34. " T HE A MANASA ( the ' mindless ') HAVE DEFILED OUR FUTURE ABODES ( a ). T HIS IS K ARMA. L ET US DWELL IN THE OTHERS. L ET US TEACH THEM BETTER, LEST WORSE SHOULD HAPPEN." T HEY DID. . . . ------- 35. T HEN ALL BECAME ENDOWED WITH M ANAS ( minds ) . T HEY SAW THE SIN OF THE MINDLESS. But they had already separated before the ray of divine reason had enlightened the dark region of their hitherto slumbering minds, and had sinned. That is to say, they had committed evil unconsciously, by producing an effect which was unnatural. Yet, like the other six primitive brother or fellow races, even so this seventh, henceforth degenerated race, which will have to bide its time for its final development on account of the sin committed, -- even this race will find itself on the last day on one of the seven paths. For "the wise* guard the home of nature's order, they assume excellent forms in secret."** But we must see whether the "animals" tampered with, were of the same kind as those known to zoology. [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * This verse in the Veda ( X. 5-6), "The seven wise ones (rays of wisdom, Dhyanis) fashion seven paths (or lines as also Races in another sense). To one of these may the distressed mortal come" -- which is interpreted solely from the astronomical and cosmic aspect -- is one of the most pregnant in occult meaning. The "paths" may mean lines ( maryadah ) , but they are primarily beams of light falling on the paths leading to wisdom. (See Rig Veda IV . 5-13.) It means "ways" or paths. They are, in short, the seven Rays which fall free from the macrocosmic centre, the seven principles in the metaphysical, the seven Races in the physical sense. All depends upon the key used. ** " Rig Veda, " X. 10, 5, 2. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 192 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. ( a ) The "Fall" occurred, according to the testimony of ancient Wisdom and the old records, as soon as Daksha (the reincarnated Creator of men and things in the early Third Race) disappeared to make room for that portion of mankind which had "separated." This is how the Commentary explains the details that preceded the "Fall": -- " In the initial period of man ' s Fourth evolution, the human kingdom branched off in several and various directions. The outward shape of its first specimens was not uniform, for the vehicles (the egg-like, external shells, in which the future fully physical man gestated) were often tampered with, before they hardened, by huge animals, of species now unknown, and which belonged to the tentative efforts of Nature. The result was that intermediate races of monsters, half animals, half men, were produced. But as they were failures, they were not allowed to breathe long and live, though the intrinsically paramount power of psychic over physical nature being yet very weak, and hardly established, the ' Egg-Born ' Sons had taken several of their females unto themselves as mates, and bred other human monsters. Later, animal species and human races becoming gradually equilibrized, they separated and mated no longer. Man created no more -- he begot. But he also begot animals, as well as men in days of old. Therefore the Sages ( or wise men ) , who speak of males who had no more will-begotten offspring, but begat various animals along with Danavas (giants) on females of other species -- animals being as ( or in a manner of ) Sons putative to them ; and they (the human males) refusing in time to be regarded as (putative) fathers of dumb creatures -- spoke truthfully and wisely. Upon seeing this (state of things), the kings and Lords of the Last Races (of the Third and the Fourth) placed the seal of prohibition upon the sinful intercourse. It interfered with Karma , it developed new (Karma) . * They (the divine Kings) struck the culprits with sterility. They destroyed the Red and Blue Races. ** In another we find: -- " There were blue and red-faced animal-men even in later times ; not from actual intercourse (between the human and animal species), but by descent. " And still another passage mentions: -- " Red-haired, swarthy men going on all-fours, who bend and unbend (stand erect and fall on their hands again) who speak as their forefathers, and run on their hands as their giant fore-mothers. " Perchance in these specimens, Haeckelians might recognize, not the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * It is next to impossible to translate verbally some of these old Commentaries. We are often obliged to give the meaning only, and thus retranslate the verbatim translations. ** Rudra, as a Kumara, is Lilalohita -- red and blue. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 193 THE BONELESS RACE. Homo primigenius, but some of the lower tribes, such as some tribes of the Australian savages. Nevertheless, even these are not descended from the anthropoid apes, but from human fathers and semi-human mothers, or, to speak more correctly, from human monsters -- those "failures" mentioned in the first Commentary. The real anthropoids, Haeckel's Catarrhini and Platyrrhini, came far later, in the closing times of Atlantis. The orang-outang, the gorilla, the chimpanzee and cynocephalus are the latest and purely physical evolutions from lower anthropoid mammalians. They have a spark of the purely human essence in them; man on the other hand, has not one drop of pithecoid* blood in his veins. Thus saith old Wisdom and universal tradition. How was the separation of sexes effected? it is asked. Are we to believe in the old Jewish fable of the rib of Adam yielding Eve?