AM-206. CHAINS, ROUNDS & GLOBES (7)

So far our understanding of the flow of evolution through the chains has informed us that lifestreams rise up the ranks at a rate of one kingdom per chain. The time has now come to introduce a modifying factor. You didn’t think it was going to be that simple.

Let us return to our analogy of a batch of students. Come exam time, some students will get a 1st class degree, the bulk of students will get a second-class degree and a rump of students will fail to gain an honours degree at all. The failures result from the students either being less able or not willing to try hard enough to keep up with the bulk of students. These students have to remain at university for another term in order to secure their degree. Well, guess what? This is exactly how lifestreams progress through a globe, a round or a chain.

If you look at this diagram, three kingdoms are represented; A, B and C. Two time periods are also indicated. In kingdom B, in period I, a tiny minority shoots ahead of the rest, reaching the goal set, and passes into kingdom A in the same time period. The bulk of Kingdom B passes into Kingdom A in Period II, in a routine manner. The remainder of kingdom B, a minority larger than the former minority, the star pupils, fails to qualify for kingdom A and so continues in kingdom B in period II. However, they have already had experiences in Kingdom B, so they enter Period II at the head of the class. The monads in Kingdom C in Period I have only just entered Period II, so they lag behind those monads who were the laggards in Period I.

Let us open up this diagram to show the evolution through all seven chains for all the kingdoms of nature and the elemental kingdoms. Let us take, for example, the Vegetable Kingdom in Chain I. The backward portion of this kingdom enters chain II, and there leads the evolution of the vegetable kingdom. The bulk of the vegetable kingdom from Chain I passes into the animal kingdom in Chain II. A tiny minority of the vegetable kingdom in Chain I succeeds in attaining the level of animals in Chain I, and therefore joins the Animal Kingdom in Chain I.

Following the progress of the main body of the Animal Kingdom of Chain II, the process repeats itself. The laggard animals join the animal kingdom in chain III and lead that kingdom. The bulk becomes human in chain III; the small vanguard joins the Human Kingdom in chain II.

In chain III the laggard humans resume their human evolution in chain IV, where they lead the humanity of that chain. The bulk of the human entities attain their goal in chain III, and pass on to further fields of evolution and service, along one or other of the seven lines, as shown in the diagram by the ascending, diverging lines at the head of the kingdom.

Again a small minority succeeds in advance of the rest, and this is shown in the diagram by the small spire rising from the centre of the kingdom. This group, of course, also has seven choices before it, as indicated by the seven radiating lines emerging from its head. 

In view of the fact, already stated, that the degrees of success attained by the members of each kingdom vary considerably, we should regard each of the life streams as breaking up into smaller streamlets, some of which join the preceding or succeeding streams, though the majority move steadily forward along the appointed course.

It is worth mentioning here an important principle, affecting the progress of the various streams of life and their innumerable sub-divisions. It is the general rule that those who have attained the highest possible outcome in any chain, round, globe or race, are not born again into the beginning of the next chain, round, globe or race, respectively. The earlier stages of an evolutionary cycle are always for the backward monads; the youngest. Only when they have already passed through a good deal of evolution and are beginning to approach the level of those who had done better, do those other monads descend into incarnation and join them once again.

The earlier half of any period of evolution, whether it be a race, a globe, a round or a chain, seems to be devoted to bringing the backward monads up to nearly the level of those who have progressed faster. These latter monads, who have been resting in their causal envelopes, descend into incarnation along with the others, and they all then proceed together along their shared path of progress. As an example, the most developed from the third or Moon Chain did not enter the first round of the fourth or Earth Chain but came in only in the middle of the fourth round. Also, the monads who incarnate in the first Root Race of a planet are those who have not progressed beyond the middle of the evolution of the preceding planet. Sticking with our university student analogy, the laggards from the last semester, start the new semester ahead of their cohort, who join them later in the term, where they all continue with their studies.

It is important to grasp this important aspect of evolution, as it shows up in so many ways. If this concept is understood, the most important event, the “Day of Judgment”, will make more sense. Before we get to this “apocalyptic” concept we need to first look at the divisions of Humanity into races and sub-races. 

For the general scheme of evolution, the Human Kingdom in each globe period is divided into seven great races, usually called Root Races. It would perhaps be more accurate to say that in each globe-period, there are seven stages of growth of the Human Kingdom. These stages are not always so clearly differentiated from one another, as they appear to be today.

Each of these Root-Races, or stages of development, is divided into seven sub-races, or seven sub-stages; and again each sub-race is further divided into seven smaller units, variously known as branch-races or nations.

In our present globe period the seven Root Races are as follows:

First Root-Race: This was called the Etheric or Polarian Race because it possessed no bodies denser than the Etheric and tended to hover near the poles of the planet. No definite sub-races can be spoken of, though there were seven stages of growth or evolutionary changes. This race disappeared from the Earth long ago.

Second Root Race: This was the Hyperborean Race: It had physical bodies and occupied a continent, called “Plaksha” in Hindu texts. It was found in the north of the globe. It also has now disappeared from the earth. 

Third Root Race: This was called the Lemurian Race and it occupied the continent of Lemuria, or Shalmali, as it is called in ancient stories. This land mass can vaguely be thought of as a large Pacific continent in the South Sea. This continent was supposed to have extended around as far as Madagascar. There are very few examples of the Lemurian Root race present today. The Bushmen of the Kalahari and possibly the Pygmy of the Congo may be remnants. However, there has been a great deal of mixing with offshoots of later races but certain characteristics remain, except their original gigantic size. 

Fourth Root-Race: This was the Atlantean Race, which inhabited the continent of Atlantis, or Kusha, most of which has now disappeared beneath the Atlantic Ocean according to Leadbeater and his Theosophical cohorts. In reality, the Atlantian civilisation covered most of the globe as we know it today, although parts of its heartland did sink beneath the waves in three distinct events. Most of the present inhabitants of the Earth belong to this root race.

Fifth Root-Race: This is the Âryan Race, and includes at present the most advanced members of the Earth’s inhabitants. Krauncha is the name given in some texts to the present land surface of Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia.

Sixth Root Race: This Root Race has not yet come into being, though it will begin to appear within the next 25,000 years. Some think this root race is just around the corner, but they forget that we still have the 6th and 7th sub-races to go and each race takes millennia to run their course. We are told that the 6th Root Race is destined to occupy a new continent. We will see about that.

Seventh Root Race: This Race will follow the sixth, and will be the last to appear on the Earth in this cycle or round. Nothing is as yet known of the continent this root race will inhabit, though the name Pushkara is sometimes given to it in Hindu texts.

For your reference, the names of the seven sub-races of the Fourth (Atlantean) Root Race are as follows. Some names may seem familiar but don’t read too much into an association with modern civilisations known by those names.

(1) Rmoahal.

(2) Tlavatli. 

(3) Toltec.

(4) Turanian.

(5) Semitic.

(6) Akkadian.

(7) Mongolian.

The sub-races of the Fifth Root-Race, using Lead eater’s terminology are as follows:

(1) Hindu.

(2) Aryo-Semitic.

(3) Persian.

(4) Keltic.

(5) Teutonic.

(6) Only just commencing to arise in various parts of the world, with the focus on the western seaboard of Canada and the USA, running into Australia.

(7) Which has not yet appeared.

The Root-Races, or the stages corresponding to the Root Races of our chain of globes, are illustrated in this diagram:

There are seven Root-Races in each globe period, with 49 Root-Races in each round, and 343 Root-Races in the whole chain. This next figure illustrates the Earth, with its Root-Races and its sub-races. Those who have completed their cycles are represented as dotted lines. Those of which some descendants still exist are shown with continuous lines, their names also being marked; those Root Races which have not yet come into being are again shown by dotted lines. This last figure shows the span of all the subdivisions of the races.

This information can be expressed numerically as follows.