Our Atlantean Ancestors
OUR ATLANTEAN ancestors differed more from
present-day man than he would imagine whose knowledge is confined
wholly to the world of the senses. This difference extended not only
to the external appearance but also to spiritual faculties. Their
knowledge, their technical arts, indeed their entire civilization
differed from what can be observed today. If we go back to the first
periods of Atlantean humanity we find a mental capacity quite
different from ours. Logical reason, the power of arithmetical
combining, on which everything rests that is produced today, were
totally absent among the first Atlanteans. On the other hand, they
had a highly developed memory. This memory was one of their
most prominent mental faculties. For example, the Atlantean did not
calculate as we do, by learning certain rules which he then applied.
A “multiplication table” was something totally unknown in
Atlantean times. Nobody impressed upon his intellect that three times
four is twelve. In the event that he had to perform such a
calculation he could manage because he remembered identical or
similar situations. He remembered how it had been on previous
occasions. One need only realize that each time a new faculty
develops in an organism, an old faculty loses power and acuteness.
The man of today is superior to the Atlantean in logical reasoning,
in the ability to combine. On the other hand, memory has
deteriorated. Nowadays man thinks in concepts; the Atlantean thought
in images. When an image appeared in his soul he remembered a great
many similar images which he had already experienced. He directed his
judgment accordingly. For this reason all teaching at that time was
different from what it became later. It was not calculated to furnish
the child with rules, to sharpen his reason. Instead, life was
presented to him in vivid images, so that later he could remember as
much as possible when he had to act under particular conditions. When
the child had grown and had gone out into life, for everything he had
to do he could remember something similar which had been presented to
him in the course of his education. He could manage best when the new
situation was similar to one he had already seen. Under totally new
conditions the Atlantean had to rely on experiment, while in this
respect much has been spared modern man due to the fact that he is
equipped with rules. He can easily apply these in those situations
which are new to him. The Atlantean system of education gave a
uniformity to all of life. For long periods things were done again
and again in the same way. The faithful memory did not allow anything
to develop which was even remotely similar to the rapidity of our
present-day progress. One did what one had always “seen”
before. One did not invent; one remembered. He was not an authority
who had learned much, but rather he who had experienced much and
therefore could remember much. In the Atlantean period it would have
been impossible for someone to decide an important matter before
reaching a certain age. One had confidence only in a person who could
look back upon long experience.
What has been said here was not true of the
initiates and their schools. For they are in advance of the
stage of development of their period. For admission into such
schools, the decisive factor is not age, but whether in his previous
incarnations the applicant has acquired the faculties for receiving
higher wisdom. The confidence placed in the initiates and their
representatives during the Atlantean period was not based on the
richness of their personal experience, but rather on the
antiquity of their wisdom. In the case of the initiate,
personality ceases to have any importance. He is totally in the
service of eternal wisdom. Therefore the characteristic features of a
particular period do not apply to him.
While the power to think logically was absent
among the Atlanteans (especially the earlier ones), in their highly
developed memory they possessed something which gave a special
character to everything they did. But with the nature of one human
power others are always connected. Memory is closer to the deeper
natural basis of man than reason, and in connection with it other
powers were developed which were still closer to those of subordinate
natural beings than are contemporary human powers. Thus the
Atlanteans could control what one calls the life force. As
today one extracts the energy of heat from coal and transforms it
into motive power for our means of locomotion, the Atlanteans knew
how to put the germinal energy of organisms into the service of their
technology. One can form an idea of this from the following. Think of
a kernel of seed-grain. In this an energy lies dormant. This energy
causes the stalk to sprout from the kernel. Nature can awaken this
energy which reposes in the seed. Modern man cannot do it at will. He
must bury the seed in the ground and leave the awakening to the
forces of nature. The Atlantean could do something else. He knew how
one can change the energy of a pile of grain into technical power,
just as modern man can change the heat energy of a pile of coal into
such power. Plants were cultivated in the Atlantean period not merely
for use as foodstuffs but also in order to make the energies dormant
in them available to commerce and industry. Just as we have
mechanisms for transforming the energy dormant in coal into energy of
motion in our locomotives, so the Atlanteans had mechanisms in which
they — so to speak — burned plant seeds, and in which the
life force was transformed into technically utilizable power. The
vehicles of the Atlanteans, which floated a short distance above the
ground travelled at a height lower than that of the mountain ranges
of the Atlantean period, and they had steering mechanisms by the aid
of which they could rise above these mountain ranges.
One must imagine that with the passage of time all
conditions on our earth have changed very much. Today, the
above-mentioned vehicles of the Atlanteans would be totally useless.
Their usefulness depended on the fact that then the cover of air
which envelops the earth was much denser than at present.
Whether in face of current scientific beliefs one can easily imagine
such greater density of air, must not occupy us here. Because of
their very nature, science and logical thinking can never decide what
is possible or impossible. Their only function is to explain what has
been ascertained by experience and observation. The above-mentioned
density of air is as certain for occult experience as any fact of
today given by the senses can be.
Equally certain however is the fact, perhaps even
more at that time the water on the whole earth was much
thinner than today. Because of this thinness the water could
be directed by the germinal energy used by the Atlanteans into
technical services which today are impossible. As a result of the
increased density of the water, it has become impossible to move and
to direct it in such ingenious ways as once were possible. From this
it must be sufficiently clear that the civilization of the Atlantean
period was radically different from ours. It will also be understood
that the physical nature of an Atlantean was quite different from
that of a contemporary man. The Atlantean took into himself water
which could be used by the life force inherent in his own body in a
manner quite different from that possible in today's physical body.
It was due to this that the Atlantean could consciously employ his
physical powers in an entirely different way from a man of today. He
had, so to speak, the means to increase the physical powers in
himself when he needed them for what he was doing. In order to have
an accurate conception of the Atlanteans one must know that their
ideas of fatigue and the depletion of forces were quite different
from those of present-day man.
An Atlantean settlement — as must be evident
from everything we have described — had a character which in no
way resembled that of a modern city. In such a settlement everything
was, on the contrary, still in alliance with nature. Only a vaguely
similar picture is given if one should say that in the first
Atlantean periods — about to the middle of the third subrace
— a settlement resembled a garden in which the houses were
built of trees with artfully intertwined branches. What the work of
human hands created at that time grew out of nature. And man himself
felt wholly related to nature. Hence his social sense also was quite
different from that of today. After all, nature is common to all men.
What the Atlantean built up on the basis of nature he considered to
be common property just as a man of today thinks it only
natural to consider as his private property what his ingenuity, his
intelligence have created for him.
One familiar with the idea that the Atlanteans
were equipped with such spiritual and physical powers as have been
described, will also understand that in still earlier times mankind
presented a picture which reminds him in only a few particulars of
what he is accustomed to see today. Not only men, but also the
surrounding nature has changed enormously in the course of time.
Plant and animal forms have become different. All of earthly nature
has been subjected to transformations. Once inhabited regions of
earth have been destroyed; others have come into existence.
The ancestors of the Atlanteans lived in a region
which has disappeared, the main part of which lay south of
contemporary Asia. In theosophical writings they are called the
Lemurians. After they had passed through various stages of
development the greatest part of them declined. These became stunted
men, whose descendants still inhabit certain parts of the earth today
as so-called savage tribes. Only a small part of Lemurian humanity
was capable of further development. From this part the Atlanteans
were formed.
Later, something similar again took place. The
greatest part of the Atlantean population declined, and from a small
portion are descended the so-called Aryans who comprise present-day
civilized humanity. According to the nomenclature of the science of
the spirit, the Lemurians, Atlanteans and Aryans are root
races of mankind. If one imagines that two such root races
preceded the Lemurians and that two will succeed the Aryans in the
future, one obtains a total of seven. One always arises from
another in the manner just indicated with respect to the Lemurians,
Atlanteans, and Aryans. Each root race has physical and mental
characteristics which are quite different from those of the preceding
one. While, for example, the Atlanteans especially developed memory
and everything connected with it, at the present time it is the task
of the Aryans to develop the faculty of thought and all that belongs
to it.
In each root race various stages must also be gone
through. There are always seven of these. In the beginning of a
period identified with a root race, its principal characteristics are
in a youthful condition; slowly they attain maturity and finally
enter a decline. The population of a root race is thereby divided
into seven sub-races. But one must not imagine that one subrace
immediately disappears when a new one develops. Each one may maintain
itself for a long time while others are developing beside it. Thus
there are always populations which show different stages of
development living beside each other on earth.
The first subrace of the Atlanteans developed from
a very advanced part of the Lemurians who had a high evolutionary
potential. The faculty of memory appeared only in its rudiments among
the Lemurians, and then only in the last period of their development.
One must imagine that while a Lemurian could form ideas of what he
was experiencing, he could not preserve these ideas. He immediately
forgot what he had represented to himself. Nevertheless, that he
lived in a certain civilization, that, for example, he had tools,
erected buildings and so-forth — this he owed not to his
own powers of conception, but to a mental force in him, which
was instinctive. However, one must not imagine this to have
been the present-day instinct of animals, but one of a different
kind.
Theosophical writings call the first subrace of
the Atlanteans that of the Rmoahals. The memory of this race was
primarily directed toward vivid sense impressions. Colors which the
eye had seen, sounds which the ear had heard, had a long after-effect
in the soul. This was expressed in the fact that the Rmoahals
developed feelings which their Lemurian ancestors did not yet
know. For example, the attachment to what has been experienced in the
past is a part of these feelings.
With the development of memory was connected that
of language. As long as man did not preserve what was past, a
communication of what had been experienced could not take place
through the medium of language. Because in the last Lemurian period
the first beginnings of memory appeared, at that time it was also
possible for the faculty of naming what had been seen and heard to
have its inception. Only men who have the faculty of recollection can
make use of a name which has been given to something. The Atlantean
period, therefore, is the one in which the development of language
took place. With language a bond was established between the human
soul and the things outside man. He produced a speech-word inside
himself, and this speech-word belonged to the objects of the external
world. A new bond is also formed among men by communications through
the medium of language. It is true that all this existed in a still
youthful form among the Rmoahals, but nevertheless it distinguished
them profoundly from their Lemurian forefathers.
The soul powers of these first Atlanteans still
possessed something of the forces of nature. These men were more
closely related to the beings of nature which surrounded them than
were their successors. Their soul powers were more connected with
forces of nature than are those of modern man. Thus the speech-word
which they produced had something of the power of nature. They not
only named things, but in their words was a power over
things and also over their fellow-men. The word of the Rmoahals not
only had meaning, but also power. The magic power of
words is something which was far truer for those men than it is for
men of today. When a Rmoahals man pronounced a word, this word
developed a power similar to that of the object it designated.
Because of this, words at that time were curative; they could advance
the growth of plants, tame the rage of animals, and perform other
similar functions. All this progressively decreased in force among
the later sub-races of the Atlanteans. One could say that the
original fullness of power was gradually lost. The Rmoahals men felt
this plenitude of power to be a gift of mighty nature, and their
relationship to the latter had a religious character. For them
language was something especially sacred. The misuse of certain
sounds, which possessed an important power, was an impossibility.
Each man felt that such misuse must cause him enormous harm. The good
magic of such words would have changed into its opposite; that which
would have brought blessings if used properly would bring ruin to the
author if used criminally. In a kind of innocence of feeling the
Rmoahals ascribed their power not so much to themselves as to the
divine nature acting within them.
This changed among the second subrace, the
so-called Tlavatli peoples. The men of this race began to feel their
own personal value. Ambition, a quality unknown to the Rmoahals, made
itself felt among them. Memory was in a sense transferred to
the conception of communal life. He who could look back upon certain
deeds demanded recognition of them from his fellow-men. He demanded
that his works be preserved in memory. Based upon this memory
of deeds, a group of men who belonged together elected one as leader
A kind of regal rank developed. This recognition was even preserved
beyond death. The memory, the remembrance of the
ancestors or of those who had acquired merit in life, developed. From
this there emerged among some tribes a kind of religious veneration
of the deceased, an ancestor cult. This cult continued into
much later times and took the most varied forms. Among the Rmoahals a
man was still esteemed only to the degree to which he could command
respect at a particular moment through his powers. If someone among
them wanted recognition for what he had done in earlier days, he had
to demonstrate by new deeds that he still possessed his old power. He
had to recall the old works to memory by means of new ones. What had
been done was not esteemed for its own sake. Only the second subrace
considered the personal character of a man to the point where it took
his past life into account in the evaluation of this character.
A further consequence of memory for the communal
life of man was the fact that groups of men were formed which were
held together by the remembrance of common deeds. Previously
the formation of groups depended wholly upon natural forces, upon
common descent. Man did not add anything through his own mind to what
nature had made of him. Now a powerful personality recruited a number
of people for a joint undertaking, and the memory of this joint
action formed a social group.
This kind of social communal life became fully
developed only among the third subrace, the Toltec. It was therefore
the men of this race who first founded what is a state. The
leadership, the government of these communities, was transmitted from
one generation to the next. The father now gave over to the son what
previously survived only in the memory of contemporaries. The deeds
of the ancestors were not to be forgotten by their whole line
of descent. What an ancestor had done was esteemed by his
descendants. However, one must realize that in those times men
actually had the power to transmit their gifts to their descendants.
Education, after all, was calculated to mold life through vivid
images. The effectiveness of this education had its foundation in the
personal power which emanated from the educator — He did not
sharpen the power of thought, but in fact, developed those gifts
which were of a more instinctive kind. Through such a system of
education the capacities of the father were generally transmitted to
the son.
Under such conditions personal experience
acquired more and more importance among the third subrace. When one
group of men separated from another for the foundation of a new
community, it carried along the remembrance of what it had
experienced at the old scene. But at the same time there was
something in this remembrance which the group did not find suitable
for itself, in which it did not feel at ease. Therefore it then tried
something new. Thus conditions improved with every one of these new
foundations. It was only natural that what was better was imitated.
These are the facts which explain the development of those
flourishing communities in the period of the third subrace, described
in theosophic literature. The personal experiences which were
acquired found support from those who were initiated into the eternal
laws of spiritual development. Powerful rulers themselves were
initiated, so that personal ability might have full support. Through
his personal ability man slowly prepares himself for initiation. He
must first develop his powers from below in order that the
enlightenment from above can be given to him. In this way the
initiated kings and leaders of the Atlanteans came into being.
Enormous power was in their hands, and they were greatly
venerated.
But in this fact also lay the reason for decline
and decay. The development of memory led to the pre-eminent power of
a personality. Man wanted to count for something
through his power. The greater the power became, the more he wanted
to exploit it for himself. The ambition which had developed turned
into marked selfishness. Thus the misuse of these powers arose. When
one considers the capabilities of the Atlanteans resulting from their
mastery of the life force, one will understand that this misuse
inevitably had enormous consequences. A broad power over nature could
be put at the service of personal egotism.
This was accomplished in full measure by the
fourth subrace, the Primal Turanians. The members of this race, who
were instructed in the mastery of the above-mentioned powers, often
used them in order to satisfy their selfish wishes and desires. But
used in such a manner, these powers destroy each other in their
reciprocal effects. It is as if the feet were stubbornly to carry a
man forward, while his torso wanted to go backward.
Such a destructive effect could only be halted
through the development of a higher faculty in man. This was the
faculty of thought. Logical thinking has a restraining effect on
selfish personal wishes. The origin of logical thinking must be
sought among the fifth subrace, the Primal Semites. Men began to go
beyond a mere remembrance of the past and to compare different
experiences. The faculty of judgment developed. Wishes and appetites
were regulated in accordance with this faculty of judgment. One began
to calculate, to combine. One learned to work with thoughts.
If previously one had abandoned oneself to every desire, now one
first asked whether thought could approve this desire. While the men
of the fourth subrace rushed wildly toward the satisfaction of their
appetites, those of the fifth began to listen to an inner voice. This
inner voice checks the appetites, although it cannot destroy the
claims of the selfish personality.
Thus the fifth subrace transferred the impulses
for action to within the human being. Man wishes to come to terms
within himself as to what he must or must not do. But what thus was
won within, with respect to the faculty of thought, was lost with
respect to the control of external natural forces. With this
combining thought mentioned above, one can master only the forces of
the mineral world, not the life force. The fifth subrace therefore
developed thought at the expense of control of the life force. But it
was just through this that it produced the germ of the further
development of mankind. New personality, self-love, even complete
selfishness could grow freely; for thought alone which works wholly
within, and can no longer give direct orders to nature, is not
capable of producing such devastating effects as the previously
misused powers. From this fifth subrace the most gifted part was
selected which survived the decline of the fourth root race and
formed the germ of the fifth, the Aryan race, whose mission is the
complete development of the thinking faculty.
The men of the sixth subrace, the Akkadians,
developed the faculty of thought even further than the fifth. They
differed from the so-called Primal Semites in that they employed this
faculty in a more comprehensive sense than the former.
It has been said that while the development of the
faculty of thought prevented the claims of the selfish personality
from having the same devastating effects as among the earlier races,
these claims were not destroyed by it. The Primal Semites at first
arranged their personal circumstances as their faculty of thought
directed. Intelligence took the place of mere appetites and desires.
The conditions of life changed. If preceding races were inclined to
acknowledge as leader one whose deeds had impressed themselves deeply
upon their memory, or who could look back upon a life of rich
memories, this role was now conferred upon the intelligent. If
previously that which lived in a clear remembrance was decisive, one
now regarded as best what was most convincing to thought. Under the
influence of memory one formerly held fast to a thing until one found
it to be inadequate, and in that case it was quite natural that he
who was in a position to remedy a want could introduce an innovation.
But as a result of the faculty of thought, a fondness for innovations
and changes developed. Each wanted to put into effect what his
intelligence suggested to him. Turbulent conditions therefore began
to prevail under the fifth subrace, and in the sixth they led to a
feeling of the need to bring the obdurate thinking of the individual
under general laws. The splendor of the communities of the
third subrace was based on the fact that common memories brought
about order and harmony. In the sixth, this order had to be brought
about by thought-out laws. Thus it is in this sixth subrace that one
must look for the origin of regulations of justice and law.
During the third subrace, the separation of a
group of men took place only when they were forced out of
their community so to speak, because they no longer felt at ease in the
conditions prevailing as a result of memory. In the sixth this was
considerably different. The calculating faculty of thought sought the
new as such; it spurred men to enterprises and new foundations. The
Akkadians were therefore an enterprising people with an inclination
to colonization. It was commerce, especially, which nourished the
waxing faculty of thought and judgment.
Among the seventh subrace, the Mongols, the
faculty of thought was also developed. But characteristics of the
earlier sub-races, especially of the fourth, remained present in them
to a much higher degree than in the fifth and sixth. They remained
faithful to the feeling for memory. And thus they reached the
conviction that what is oldest is also what is most sensible and can
best defend itself against the faculty of thought. It is true that
they also lost the mastery over the life forces, but what developed
in them as the thinking faculty also possessed something of the
natural might of this life force. Indeed they had lost the power over
life, but they never lost their direct, naive faith in it.
This force had become their god, in whose behalf they did
everything they considered right. Thus they appeared to the
neighboring peoples as if possessed by this secret force, and
they surrendered themselves to it in blind trust. Their descendants
in Asia and in some parts of Europe manifested and still manifest
much of this quality.
The faculty of thought planted in men could only
attain its full value in relation to human development when it
received a new impetus in the fifth root race. The fourth root race,
after all, could only put this faculty at the service of that to
which it was educated through the gift of memory. The fifth alone
reached life conditions for which the proper tool is the ability to
think.
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