V
WOMAN
IN THE THIRD ROOT-RACE
THE
development undergone by woman during the Lemurian era
qualified her for an important
rôle
on the earth in connection with the beginning of the next Atlantean
Root-Race. This was ushered in under the influence of highly
developed entities who were acquainted with the laws of the moulding
of races, and who were capable of turning the existing forces of
human nature into such courses as led to the formation of a new race.
Later on, a special reference will be made to these entities. For the
present suffice it to say that superhuman wisdom and power were
immanent in them. They separated a small number of the Lemurian men
and appointed them to become the progenitors of the subsequent
Atlantean Race. The place chosen lay in the torrid zone. The men of
this little clan attained, under their guidance, the mastery of
Nature's forces. They were full of energy, and knew how to wrest from
Nature treasures of many kinds. They knew how to cultivate fields and
how to utilize their fruits. Through the training to which they had
been subjected (compare previous chapter), they had become men
of strong will. It was in woman, however, that the mind and the soul
were developed, for it was in her that memory and imagination, and
all connected therewith, were found to have been already fostered.
The leaders to whom reference has been made
brought about an arrangement of the little flock into small groups,
and to woman they entrusted the ordering and arranging of these
groups. Women had acquired, by means of their memory, the faculty of
utilizing for the future all the experiences that they had once
known. That which had proved valuable yesterday was turned by them to
present advantage; and they were clearly aware that it would likewise
be useful to-morrow. The arrangements of the communal life came
thus from women. Under their influence the notions of “good and
evil” were developed. Through their reflective life they had
acquired an understanding of Nature. Out of their observations of
Nature grew the ideas according to which they guided the actions of
men. The leaders arranged things in such wise that the will-power and
superabundant energy of men were ennobled and purified by the
“soul” in woman. Of course, all this is to be considered
as at an elementary stage. The words of our languages are too apt to
suggest ideas derived from contemporary life.
Indirectly, through the awakened psychical life of women, did the
leaders develop that of the men. In the above-mentioned
colony, the influence of women was therefore very great. They were
consulted whenever it was desired to interpret the signs of
Nature. The whole mode of their psychic life was, however, still such
that it was ruled by the “secret” psychic powers of men.
To give an approximate, if not quite adequate, conception of
this state, one might speak of a somnambulistic perception on the
part of these women. The secrets of Nature were revealed to them, and
the impulses of their actions were imparted in a kind of higher
dream-state. Everything to them was the expression of spiritual
powers, and appeared in the form of psychic faculties and visions.
They abandoned themselves to the mystic working of their
psychic powers. They were prompted to their actions by “inner
voices” or by that which was told them by plants, animals, and
stones, the wind and the clouds, or the rustling of the trees.
From soul-conditions of such a kind arose that
which may be called human religion. The psychic element in Nature and
in human life came gradually to be reverenced and worshipped. Some
women attained to special predominance, because they were able to
interpret from certain mysterious depths the phenomena of the world.
So it came to pass that with these women that which was within them
transposed itself into a kind of Nature-speech.
For the beginning of speech lies in something akin to song. The power
of thought converted itself into that of audible sound. The inner
rhythm of Nature resounded through the life of “wise”
women. People gathered round such women, and their song-like
utterances were felt as the expression of higher powers. Thus
did divine worship take its inception among men. It would be an error
to consider that there was any “sense” in the spoken word
at that time. Only the sound, tone, and rhythm were felt. No one had
any aim other than that of drawing strength into the soul from what
was heard. The whole procedure was under the guidance of the higher
leaders. They had inspired the “wise” priestesses with
tones and rhythms in a manner which cannot be described here, and it
was thus that women were able to affect the souls of men in such a
way as to ennoble them. It may be said that it was altogether in this
manner that the true soul-life was awakened.
The
Ākāshic Records
reveal what are in this respect scenes of much beauty. One of these
shall be described. We are in a wood close to a gigantic tree. The
sun has just risen in the east. Mighty are the shadows thrown by the
palm-like tree across the cleared space round it. With her face to
the east, and in a state of exaltation, we discern a priestess on a
seat prepared of curious natural objects and plants. Slowly and in a
rhythmic cadence flow from her lips certain wondrous sounds
which are repeated again and again. Ranged in large circles, a number
of men and women sit round her with dreamy faces, absorbing inner
life from the sounds. Still other scenes may be witnessed. At another
place, arranged in like manner, a priestess chants in a similar way,
but her tones have in them something more mighty, more powerful, and
the men around her move in rhythmic dances. For this was the other
method by means of which the “soul” entered mankind. The
mysterious rhythms which man had caught from Nature were imitated in
the movements of his own limbs. Thus was it that man felt himself at
one with Nature and with the Powers that ruled her.
The part of the earth on which was reared the
germ of the coming human race was particularly adapted for this
purpose. It was situated where the still agitated and stormy earth
had more or less settled down. For Lemuria was greatly troubled by
storms. The earth had not then reached its later density. The thin
soil was everywhere undermined by volcanic forces bursting forth in
smaller or greater streams. Mighty volcanoes were found nearly
everywhere, and continually exercised a devastating activity.
In all their arrangements men were accustomed to take this fiery
agency into consideration. They even turned the fire to
advantage in respect of their works and enterprises. The state of
things was such that this natural fire could be turned to account in
human labour just as is the case to-day with artificial fire. It was
the activity of volcanic fire that also brought about the ruin of the
Lemurian continent. The portion of Lemuria in which the Root-Race of
the Atlanteans was to appear had, it is true, a hot climate, but
nevertheless it was exempt, on the whole, from subjection to
volcanic agency. Human nature could develop itself here more calmly
and peacefully. The more nomadic life of former times was abandoned,
and fixed settlements increased in number.
One has to remember that the human body was at
this time still very plastic and flexible. It was still in a state of
formation, in keeping with man's inner changes. At a recent era, for
instance, men were still quite different as to their external
appearance. The external influence of the country and of the
climate continued to affect their form. But in the specified colony
the body became increasingly an expression of the inner psychic life.
This colony contained at the same time a species of men who were
advanced, and of a finer external form. It should be said that the
true human form was created by what had been clone by the leaders.
The work was certainly very slow and gradual, but the progress began
with the unfolding of the psychic life in man; and the
still soft and plastic body adapted itself accordingly. It is a law
of human development that the transforming influence of man on
his physical body decreases with progress. Indeed, that physical body
only acquired a fairly firm form through the development of
intellectual power, and contemporaneously with the
solidification of the stony, mineral and metallic formations of the
earth, which were connected with this development. For in the
Lemurian, and even in the Atlantean era also, stones and metals were
far softer than they afterwards became. This is not in contradiction
with the fact that there still exist descendants of the last
Lemurians and Atlanteans who even now display forms no less solid
than those of the later human races. These remainders had to adapt
themselves to the altered conditions surrounding them, and
consequently became more rigid. This is precisely the cause of their
gradual extinction. They did not mould themselves from within,
but their less developed inner nature was forced from without into
rigidity and thereby brought to a standstill. And this standstill is
truly a retrogression, for even the inner life deteriorated because
it could not live itself out in the solidified external body.
Animal life displayed a still greater capacity
for change. (Reference will be made later on to the kinds of animals
present at the time of the earliest races, both as to their origin
and also as to the appearance of new forms of animals during the
subsequent history of men. Suffice it here to say that the existing
animal species were in a state of constant transformation, and that
new species continued to arise.) This transformation was naturally
gradual. The reasons of the transformation lay, partly, in the change
of domicile and mode of life. Animals had an extraordinarily quick
capacity for adaptation to new conditions. The plastic body altered
its organs with comparative quickness, so that, after a longer or
shorter time, the descendants of a particular species well-nigh
ceased to resemble their progenitors. It was also thus with plants,
but in a more pronounced degree. The greatest influence on the
transformation of man and animals was due to man himself, by his
either instinctively bringing living beings into such surroundings
that they assumed definite forms, or by attempting to produce
changes by breeding. The transforming influence of man on
nature was, at that time, incalculably greater than is the case at
present, and this was especially the case in the colony described.
For here this transformation was guided by the leaders in a manner
which was not realized by men. So it came about that, when men went
forth to found the various Atlantean races, they took with them
highly advanced knowledge as to the breeding of animals and plants.
The growth of civilization was, then, essentially a consequence of
the knowledge which they had brought with them. Nevertheless it
must be emphasized that these instructions were only instinctive in
character, and in essence they still remained so among the
first Atlantean races.
The predominance of the woman-soul, already
indicated, is particularly strong in the last Lemurian epoch, and
continues into the Atlantean era, when the fourth sub-race was in
preparation. It must not, however, be thought that this was the case
with the whole of mankind; but it holds true as regards that portion
of the earthly population from which came forth, at a later period,
the truly advanced races. This influence was most potent on all that
is “unconscious” in, or about man. The acquisition
of certain habitual gestures, the subtleties of sense
perception, the feeling for beauty, a good deal of the
sensitive and emotional life common to men in general, emanated
originally from the soul of woman. It is not saying too much if we
interpret the communications of the Ākāshic
Records to this effect: “Civilized
nations have a bodily structure and a bodily expression, as well as
certain bases of the physically psychic life, which have been stamped
on them by woman.”
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