After our introduction, in the last presentation, on the transition of one globe to the corresponding globe on the next chain, it is time to get into the nitty-gritty of the first round. This may, at the outset seem like a very nebulous task, as the globes that formed were nebulous themselves. But bear with me and you will come to understand how life really got started on our planet. There are some interesting inversions of events that will emerge.
In the preceding presentation, I mentioned that the globes in the first round of the Earth Chain were at the same level as those of the Moon Chain in its seventh round. Consequently, they were a grade higher than they are today. The correct order that we would expect, with the Mental plane being the highest globe, A & G, did not appear till the second round. The conditions of life during the first round were different from any that have prevailed since. In the first round, the matter of the globes and the life evolving through it was also in all cases at a stage higher.
Globes A and G, for example, which are now, in the fourth round, are on the Mental plane, were then the theatre for life belonging to the higher levels. The globes in the first round did have mental matter within them. However, it was not in a condition to be inhabited by beings at its own level, that of mental matter; it was not sufficiently condensed, or stable enough. Globes B and F, though composed of emotional matter, were then utilised only to make forms of mental matter. Globes C and E were still largely gaseous and etheric, and only emotional bodies were employed by the entities who lived upon these two planets. This chimes in with speculation that I put forward many moons ago, excuse the pun, that each globe either descends or ascends. Globes C and E are not at the same density as Globe D in this fourth round.
Our own planet, Globe D, the Earth, already contained a good deal of solid physical matter, but it was so hot that there were still lakes and seas, and even showers, of molten metal. It would have been quite impossible for people with bodies in the slightest degree like ours to live there at all. The inhabitants, however, used only vehicles of etheric matter and therefore were not inconvenienced by the fact that they were living on a giant lava flow.
In the interval between the First and Second Rounds, the matter of the various globes had time to settle down into a more stable condition, so that each of them could be inhabited in the Second Round by entities using vehicles at the level of its own matter, not the one above it. Previously, as stated, they were always one level above.
The following is a vivid description presented in the Secret Doctrine, of the condition of the globes in the first round. ”Behold a vast mass of heaving, tossing, whirling, fiery matter, flashing, rolling, changing, in billowing masses, slowly aggregating itself according to three varying densities, into seven filmy forms. Scarce forms indeed can we call them, for even when we descend to the fourth, the most material of the globes’ we can catch only a dim glimpse of Earth’s first rûpa (form), a mere film of âkâsha (plasma), tenuous, radiant, luminous, fiery. There is nothing visible save embodied fire in this round. Seven of these globes we dimly see, of which the fourth, that is to be our Earth, is the most perceptible. Above it, on the descending arc, vague and vaguer shadows loom through the fiery mists. Above it, on the ascending arc, three other shadows, fiery, scarce perceptible. A vast panorama of flames, that take and lose again the form of globes, huge, wondrous, awe-inspiring, in resistless force and overwhelming energy.”
The worlds would be curious to us, like churning whirlpools; Globes C and E were still in a largely gaseous condition and etheric in nature. Entities on them would be living in emotional bodies. The Earth, the most solid, was hot, muddy, sticky, and much of its territory did not seem to be anchored very firmly. It was seething, and constantly changing in consistency. Huge cataclysms engulfed great multitudes of monads from time to time. In their embryonic condition, they were only using etheric bodies. They did not seem to be very affected by being engulfed, but increased and multiplied in huge caves and caverns, as though they were living comfortably on the surface of the planet.
The Earth Chain, because it consisted of new globes, freshly aggregated, there were at first no forms on them for the incoming monads to inhabit. These forms, therefore, had to be established for all the kingdoms of nature. This needs to be done at the beginning of the first round of a new chain, but never after that. How? The explanation was given in a previous presentation that in the inner rounds, there is always present on each globe after the main streams of life have passed on to the next globe in order, a small nucleus of entities belonging to each kingdom. Remember?
As a result, the lowest class of human beings of the Moon Chain came into the Earth Chain at its commencement and established the forms in the first round. They were then followed by the next grades of entities in succession, as will be presented in greater detail in due course.
It is worth repeating here that what was said in a previous presentation was an example of the work of a Manu. In the first round of the Earth Chain, the Manu in charge brought down all the archetypes for the whole of the chain. Although many of these will not be fully perfected down on any globe until the seventh round. However, the germs of all of them were already to be found in the first round. For every kingdom in nature, the Manu selected a certain set of forms, which He wished to have vivified during the first round, with the view of developing from them at later stages everything that the Planetary Logos wished the Earth Chain to produce.
The scheme of these forms materialised down to a level where evolving monads could use them, and was handed over to certain groups of the Lords of the Moon, or Barhishads, who were entrusted with the work of setting the activities of the first chain in motion. The Barhishads from Moon Chain Globe G were in charge of this during the first round of the Earth Chain.
In each of the seven globes of the first round, they made these forms. As they made forms the animal-men from the Moon Chain entered them, solidified and used them. From them, they generated other forms, which could be inhabited by the moon-animals, which occupied the stages below them. Notice that this is in the reverse order of what evolutionary theory informs us of today as to how evolution happens. We originally went from more evolved forms to less evolved ones. We did not evolve from bacteria, they evolved from us!
Following the principle already explained that the most backward entities are those who incarnate first on a new globe, entering into the primitive forms which have been evolving up until that point on that globe, the Moon Animal-Men, having only ”line”, causal bodies, were the first to come into the Earth Chain. To them was assigned the pioneering work of the Chain. With them also came the great mass of animals from Globe D of the Moon Chain. The ship-loads or batches succeeded each other at intervals of about 100,000 years, and then the supply stopped, and an immense period of time followed during which the new arrivals were doing the pioneering work of the chain. This occurred during the first and second rounds.
Their progress possessed this curious feature, that they did not continue their evolution from the point where they had left it on the Moon Chain, but recapitulated all of their stages many times over. On each of the planets of the Earth Chain in the first round, they entered the First Elemental Kingdom, passing rapidly through it, and then through the Second and Third Elemental Kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, and eventually reached the human kingdom once again.
In each of the kingdoms, they fulfilled the function of establishing the forms, taking the blueprint of them from the Barhishads and directing the evolution of the globe concerned. These primitive entities may, perhaps, rather be considered as flowing into the moulds made by their instructors. They were materialising the moulds for the use of those who followed them. This is an important concept to hold in your thoughts. Later we will see this play out as humans from the Moon Chain incarnated into primitive bodies of what we call today apemen.
On that thought, let’s leave it there for today and complete our look at the first round in the next presentation.