III
TRANSITION
OF THE ATLANTEAN INTO THE ÂRYAN ROOT-RACE
THE following
communications refer to the transition of the fourth (Atlantean)
Root-Race into the fifth (Âryan), to which belongs civilised
mankind of the present day. He only will estimate them
correctly who is able to grasp the idea of evolution in its
fullest meaning. Everything that comes to the notice of man in
his surroundings is in a condition of development. And it must also
be remembered that the peculiar characteristic of men of our
fifth Root-Race, consisting in the use of thought, has but
just been developed. Indeed, it is this Root-Race that slowly and
gradually brings the power of thought to maturity. The man of the
present makes up his mind and carries out his decision on the
strength of his own thought. With the Atlanteans this capacity was
only in preparation. Not their own thoughts,
but those which flowed in upon them from Beings of a higher kind,
influenced their will, which was thus guided, in a sense, from
without. He who makes himself familiar with this conception of
evolution in regard to man, and who learns to admit that he was, in
prehistoric times and as an inhabitant of the earth, of an altogether
different constitution, will also be
able to advance to the conception of those wholly different Beings to
whom reference is made in these communications. The development which
is under consideration occupied enormous periods of time. Details of
this will be shown more circumstantially in the following
communications.
What has previously been said about the fourth
Root-Race, the Atlantean, refers to the great general mass of
mankind. But the latter found themselves under leaders who
towered high above them in ability. The wisdom possessed by these
leaders, and the powers of which they were masters, could not be
obtained through any earthly education, but were imparted to them by
entities of a high rank, and not pertaining directly to the earth. It
was, therefore, quite natural that the great mass of mankind regarded
these, their leaders, as Beings of a higher kind, as
“messengers” of the gods. For that which these leaders
knew and were able to achieve could not have been accomplished
by means of human sense-organs or human understanding. They were
worshipped as “Divine Messengers,” and their precepts,
commands, and instructions were accepted. By such Beings
mankind was instructed in sciences, arts, and the construction of
tools. And such “Divine Messengers” either directed the
communities themselves, or instructed such men as were sufficiently
developed in the arts of governing. These leaders were said “to
hold intercourse with gods,” and to be initiated by these
themselves in the laws according to which mankind was to develop. And
this was in accordance with fact. This initiation, this
intercourse with the gods, occurred at places quite unknown to the
populace. “Temples of Mysteries” was the name given to
these places of initiation, and it was from their midst that mankind
was governed.
That which took place in the Temples of
Mysteries was, accordingly, incomprehensible to the populace,
and only very slightly did the latter understand the purposes of
their great leaders. The people could, indeed, understand with their
senses only what happened immediately on the earth, not what was
revealed from higher worlds. Consequently the teachings of the
leaders had also to be clad in a form which was unlike the form used
in the communication of earthly matters. The language used in the
mysteries between the gods and their messengers was, indeed, no
earthly tongue, nor were the forms assumed by the gods in their
manifestations of an earthly kind. “In fiery clouds” did
they, the higher spirits, appear to their messengers, in order to
instruct them how men were to be guided. Only a man can appear in
human form; entities whose faculties surpass the human level must
manifest under forms which are not to be found among those of earth.
The fact that the “Messengers of the
Gods” could receive the revelations was owing to their
attainment of the highest degree of development among their human
brothers. They had already, in earlier stages of evolution, gone
through what the majority of men have yet to experience. Only in a
special way did they belong to this contemporaneous mankind. They
could assume the human form, but their psycho-spiritual faculties
were superhuman in character. They were, therefore,
divine-human, double entities. Hence they might also be described as
higher spirits who had assumed human bodies, in order to help mankind
further along its earthly path. Their true home was not on the earth.
These entities guided man without being able to communicate to him
the principles according to which they were leading him. For up to
the fifth sub-race of the Atlanteans, the Original Semites, men had
absolutely no capacity whatever wherewith to grasp these principles.
Not till the power of thought began to develop in this sub-race did
such capacity exist. But this faculty developed slowly and gradually.
Even the last sub-races of the Atlanteans could as yet understand
very little of the principles of their divine leaders. They began by
having a very vague presentiment of such principles.
Consequently, their conceptions and also the laws mentioned in
connection with their civic institutions were intuitive rather than
definitely thought out.
The chief leader
of the fifth Atlantean sub-race had for his object to bring it
gradually to such a point that it could, later on, and after the
disappearance of the Atlantean mode of living, initiate a new one,
such as would be completely regulated by the power of thought.
Now we must realise that the end of the
Atlantean era is characterized by these groups of human entities.
There are, firstly, the so-called “Messengers of the
Gods,” who were advanced far beyond the great mass of people,
teaching Divine Wisdom and performing divine deeds. Secondly, there
was the great mass itself, in which the power of thought was in a
state of torpor, although it possessed other natural faculties which
have since been lost. Thirdly, there was a smaller number of such as
developed the thinking capacity. These, it is true, gradually lost
the primeval faculties of the Atlanteans; but they developed instead
the capacity to grasp in thought the principles of the
“Messengers of the Gods.” The second group of human
entities was destined to die out gradually. The third, however,
admitted of such an education by the entities of the first group that
it could henceforward take over its own guidance.
From the midst of this third group selection
was made by the aforesaid chief leader (who is known in Theosophical
literature by the name of the Manu) of those most capable of forming
the nucleus of a new mankind. These fittest people were to be found
in the fifth sub-race. The thought-power of the sixth and seventh
sub-races was in a certain way already on the downward path, and no
longer fit for further development. The best qualities of the best
men were to be developed. This was achieved by the leader
sequestering the elect in a particular spot of the earth — in
Central Asia — and freeing them from every influence of those
left behind or gone astray. The task undertaken by the leader was to
conduct his disciples so far on that they could grasp in their own
souls and through their own thought the principles according to
which they were previously directed and which they faintly
understood. Men were now meant to understand the divine powers which
they had formerly followed blindly. So far, the gods had led men
through their messengers; henceforth men should know of these
divine Beings. They were to consider themselves as the executive
organs of divine Providence.
This isolated group had to face an important
change. The divine leader was in their midst in human form. From such
divine messengers mankind had previously received directions or
commands as to what was to be done or left undone. It had been taught
in sciences which referred to what could be observed by the senses.
Men suspected the fact of a divine government of the world, they felt
as much in their own actions, but they had no clear
knowledge of this fact. Their leader now spoke to them quite
differently. He taught them that invisible powers governed what was
visibly before them; and that they themselves were servants of these
invisible powers; that, with their thoughts, they had to execute the
laws of these powers; and that the invisible spiritual element was
the Creator and Preserver of the visible material world. Hitherto
they had looked up to their visible messengers of the gods, to those
superhuman Initiates of whom he who talked to them thus was himself
one, and by whom they were directed as to what to do or to avoid. Now
however they were found worthy of being instructed by the
divine messenger of the gods. Powerful was the injunction
impressed again and again on his followers: “Hitherto ye
have seen those who were your leaders, but there are higher Leaders
whom ye see not, and ye are subject to these Leaders. Fulfil the
commands of the God whom ye see not, and obey Him of whom ye can make
to yourselves no image.” Thus sounded, from the lips of the
great Leader, the new and highest commandment, prescribing the
worship of a God whom no image, visible to the senses, could
resemble, of whom, therefore, none such should be made. An echo of
this great primary commandment of the fifth race is heard in the
well-known phrase: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of
any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth.”
(Exodus, chapter xx, 3 and 4.)
Assisting the chief leader (Manu), there were
other messengers of the gods who executed his designs with regard to
particular branches of life, and helped in the development of
the new race. For the object was to arrange the whole of life
conformably with the new conception of a divine government of the
world. The thoughts of men were to be turned in every respect from
the visible to the invisible. Life is determined by natural
forces. The course of this human life depends on day and night,
winter and summer, sunshine and rain. How these momentous visible
facts are connected with the invisible (divine) forces, and how man
should act so as to live in accordance with these invisible powers
— all this was shown to him. All knowledge and all work were to
be pursued in this sense. In the course of the stars and in
atmospheric conditions, man was to see the decrees of
Providence, the expression of divine Wisdom. Astronomy and
meteorology were taught in this sense. And man was to bring his
work, his moral life, into harmony with the laws of the divine, that
are so rich in wisdom. Life was ordered according to divine
commandments, since in the course of the stars, in
meteorological conditions, etc., divine thoughts were fathomed. Man
was to bring his works into harmony with dispositions of the
gods through sacrificial deeds.
It was the intention of the Manu to direct everything in human life
towards the higher worlds. All human action, all arrangements were
to bear a religious character. In this way the Manu wished to
lead the way to that which constitutes the special task of the fifth
Root-Race. This Race was to learn to guide itself onward through its
own thoughts. Such self-determination, however, can lead to salvation
only when man gives his own self also to the service of the higher
powers. Man should make use of his thinking capacity; but this power
of thought should be uplifted by mindfulness of the Divine.
To grasp completely what happened at that
time, it is also necessary to know that the development of the
thinking capacity, beginning with the fifth sub-race of the
Atlanteans, brought about a still further consequence. In a certain
direction men acquired branches of knowledge and performed acts
which were in no immediate connection with what the Manu had to
consider as his proper task. These acquirements and arts lacked,
first of all, the religious character. They dawned on man at a time
when his only thought was to exploit them for his own advantage, for
his personal wants. — To such acquirements belongs, for
instance, that of Fire in its application to human industry. At the
beginning of the Atlantean era man had no need of fire, as the vital
force was still at his disposal. With this decrease of his
ability to avail himself of this force, he was obliged to learn how
to fashion his tools and implements from so-called lifeless things.
Here the use of fire became most advantageous, and it was the same
with regard to other natural forces. Man had also learned to make use
of these forces without being conscious of their divine origin. This,
indeed, was inevitable. Man was not to be forced to link
these things, which assisted his own mentality, with the divine order
of things. This he was rather meant to do voluntarily in his
thoughts. The intention of the Manu was, then, to evoke in men a
spontaneous need to establish a connection between such things
and the higher order of the world. Men could, as it were, choose
whether they would exploit the acquired knowledge for purely personal
benefit, or use it in the religious service of a higher world. Just
as man had previously
been forced to consider himself as a part of the divine ruling
of the world, from which there flowed in on him, for instance, the
mastery of the vital force without any need of mental effort, so now
he could also make use of natural forces without giving thought to
the divine. Of those whom the Manu had gathered round himself, all
were not ripe for the change. Indeed, very few of them were so. And
only from these could the nucleus of the new race be actually formed
by the Manu. It was, then, only with this small number that the Manu
retired, in order to further their development, while the rest became
merged in the general mass of mankind. It was then from this small
number of men, thus finally grouped round the Manu, that all the true
germs of progress in the fifth Root-Race up to the present time were
derived. Thus, however, it becomes plain that the whole
development of this fifth Root-Race displays two characteristic
features. One of these distinguishes those who are animated by
higher ideals, and who consider themselves as children of a
divine universal power; the other appears in those who make
everything subservient only to personal interests, to selfish ends.
This little band remained with the Manu until
it had become strong enough to act in the new spirit, and until its
members could set forth to impart this new spirit to that portion of
mankind which remained over from the preceding races. This new spirit
naturally assumed a different character with various nations,
according to the different phases of their development. The old
surviving characteristics became mixed with what the messengers of
the Manu brought into the various parts of the world, and in this way
manifold new cultures and civilizations arose.
The fittest personalities of those
surrounding the Manu were chosen to become initiated little by
little into his divine wisdom, so that they might become teachers to
the rest. Thus it was that along with the old messengers of the gods
there now arose a new kind of Initiates. These were they who
developed their mentality in exactly the same manner as the rest of
their fellow-men. The divine messengers of old —
and the Manu — had not done so. Their development belongs to
higher worlds. They brought their higher wisdom into earthly
relations. What they gave to mankind was “a gift from on
high.” Before the middle of the Atlantean era men were not
advanced far enough to grasp with their own faculties the import of
divine decrees. Now, in the period indicated, they were to reach this
stage. Their earthly thought was to rise to the conception of the
divine. Human Initiates united themselves with those who were
superhuman. This signifies an important change in the development of
humanity. The first Atlanteans had not yet the choice of viewing
their leaders as divine messengers, or of not doing so. For what
these accomplished appeared, perforce, as a deed of the higher
worlds. A divine origin was stamped on it. On account of their power,
the divine messengers of the Atlantean era were therefore sanctified
Beings, surrounded by the lustre conferred on them by this power. The
human Initiates of the subsequent era, if considered
externally, are men among men. To be sure, they remained in touch
with the higher worlds, receptive of the revelations and
appearances of the messengers of the gods. Only on exceptional
occasions, in the case of a higher necessity, they made use of
certain powers, conferred on them from that source. Then did
they perform feats which men failed to interpret in terms of the
known laws and therefore rightly viewed as miracles. Nevertheless it
is the higher purpose of all this to place men on their own feet, to
develop perfectly their mentality. The human Initiates are now the
mediators between the people and the higher powers; and Initiation
alone qualifies one for intercourse with the messengers of the gods.
The human Initiates, the holy teachers,
became, then, in the beginning of the fifth Root-Race, the leaders of
the rest of mankind. The great priest-kings of prehistoric times —
attested to, if not historically, at least mythologically
— belong to this class of Initiates. The higher messengers of
the gods gradually withdrew from this earth, handing over the
leadership to these human Initiates, but still assisting them by deed
and word. Were this not so, man would not attain to a free use of his
mentality. The world stands under divine guidance; but man should not
be forced to acknowledge this fact, but should do so in consequence
of the free exercise of his mental capacity. Only when he has
attained to this do the Initiates gradually unveil to him their
secrets. But this cannot be attained suddenly. Rather is the whole
development of the fifth Root-Race a slow path to this goal. At
first the Manu himself still led his flock like children, but
afterwards the leadership was gradually transferred to
human Initiates. And, to-day, the progress still continues to consist
in a mingling of conscious and unconscious acting and thinking on the
part of men. Only at the end of the fifth Root-Race, when, after the
progress made in the course of the sixth and seventh sub-races, a
sufficiently large number of men will be ready to receive knowledge,
the greatest Initiate will be able to reveal himself to them
publicly. And this human Initiate will then be able to take over the
further general leadership, just as the Manu had done at the end of
the fourth Root-Race. The education of the fifth Root-Race has
therefore as its aim the production of a larger portion of
mankind who shall attain so far as to follow freely a human
Manu, just as was done by the nucleus of this fifth race with regard
to the divine Manu.
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