Man on Earth
- Theosophy and the Fossil Record,
by George McNamara,
Appendix 4 - The Theosophical
System
Theosophy has a coherent system, which,
once one accepts the theosophical structure of the world
(physical, etheric, astral, mental, buddhic, etc.) can
be derived from reason (to some extent). However, the
system has largely been laid out before the discovery
of DNA, and it is difficult to incorporate this discovery
into the system.
However, the theosophical system also requires
(or involves) many ranks of other beings and systems which
have led up to and maintain our present reality. This
is off-putting for many, but the simple theist position
is clearly untenable (that God created the world more-or-less-exactly
as we see it now)
A useful 'spiritual archetype' system is
to see man as composed of (say) 100 words. The remainder
of the earth beings are derived from these 100 words -
the great apes have 95 of the words, the elephant 80,
the mouse 70, a bee 40, the rose 25, a mineral 10, each
according to their nature. These 100 words describe the
physical and essential nature of man, but his task is
now to acquire another 100 words through the evolution
of consciousness. This system does not require complex
structures of creation or external hierarchies for a person
to proceed …..
However, the question remains of how man
got these initial 100 words - here are some more passages
with details of the theosophical system of evolution
-
Limiting the teaching strictly to this,
our earth, it may be shown that, as the ethereal forms
of the first Men are first projected on seven zones
by seven Dhyan-Chohanic centres of Force, so there are
centres of creative power for every ROOT or parent species
of the host of forms of vegetable and animal life. This
is, again, no "special creation," nor is there
any "Design," except in the general "ground-plan"
worked out by the universal law. But there are certainly
"designers," though these are neither omnipotent
nor omniscient in the absolute sense of the term. They
are simply Builders, or Masons, working under the impulse
given them by the ever-to-be-unknown (on our plane)
Master Mason-the ONE LIFE and Law. Belonging to this
sphere, they have no hand in, or possibility of working
on any other, during the present Manvantara, at any
rate. That they work in cycles and on a strictly geometrical
and mathematical scale of progression, is what the extinct
animal species amply demonstrate; that they act by design
in the details of minor lives (of side animal issues,
etc.) is what natural history has sufficient evidence
for. In the creation of new species, departing sometimes
very widely from the Parent stock, as in the great variety
of the genus Felis-like the lynx, the tiger, the cat,
etc.-it is the "designers" who direct the
new evolution by adding to, or depriving the species
of certain appendages, either needed or becoming useless
in the new environments. Thus, when we say that Nature
provides for every animal and plant, whether large or
small, we speak correctly. For, it is those terrestrial
spirits of Nature, who form the aggregated Nature; which,
if it fails occasionally in its design, is neither to
be considered blind, nor to be taxed with the failure;
since, belonging to a differentiated sum of qualities
and attributes, it is in virtue of that alone conditioned
and imperfect. (SD p.732)
-
But even in this domain the sub-conscious
workings of the Dhyan-Chohanic wisdom are at the root
of all the "ceaseless striving towards perfection,"
though its influence is vastly modified by those purely
material causes which de Quatrefages terms the "milieux"
and Spencer the "Environment." The "midway
point of evolution" is that stage where the astral
prototypes definitely begin to pass into the physical,
and thus become subject to the differentiating agencies
now operative around us Physical causation supervenes
immediately on the assumption of "coats of skin"-i.e.,
the physiological equipment in general. The forms of
Men and mammalia previous to the separation of sexes*
are woven out of astral matter, and possess a structure
utterly unlike that of the physical organisms, which
eat, drink, digest, etc., etc., etc. The known physiological
contrivances in organisms were almost entirely evolved
subsequently to the incipient physicalization of the
7 Root-Types out of the astral-during the "midway
halt" between the two planes of existence. (SD
p.736)
-
The line of demarcation between ethero-spiritual,
astral and physical evolution must be drawn. ……
At present the admitted chasm between the systems of
reproduction of the oviparous vertebrates and mammalia,
constitutes a hopeless crux to those thinkers who, with
the Evolutionists, seek to link all existing organic
forms in a continuous line of descent. (SD p.735)
-
…….. represents the domain
of the purely astral prototypes previous to their descent
into (gross) matter. Astral matter, it must be noted,
is fourth state matter, having, like our gross matter,
its own "protyle." There are several "protyles"
in Nature, corresponding to the various planes of matter.
The two sub-physical elemental kingdoms, the plane of
mind (manas, the fifth state matter), as also that of
Buddhi (sixth state matter), are each and all evolved
from one of the six "protyles" which constitute
the basis of the Object-Universe. (SD p.737)
-
But it claims that in this cycle (the
fourth), the frame having already existed among the
types and models of nature from the preceding Rounds-that
it was quite ready for man from the beginning of this
Round.* The Monad had but to step into the astral body
of the progenitors, in order that the work of physical
consolidation should begin around the shadowy prototype.†
(SD p.660)
-
The latter (Occultism) teaches that-(a)
the life-atoms of our (Prâna) life-principle are
never entirely lost when a man dies. That the atoms
best impregnated with the life-principle (an independent,
eternal, conscious factor) are partially transmitted
from father to son by heredity, and partially are drawn
once more together and become the animating principle
of the new body in every new incarnation of the Monads.
(SD p.671-2)
-
As to the former reality of the descent
into the physical, which culminated in physiological
man and animal, we have a palpable testimony in the
fact of the so-called spiritualistic "materializations."
In all these instances a complete temporary mergence
of the astral into the physical takes place. (SD p.737)
-
* Theosophists will remember that, according
to Occult teaching, Cyclic pralayas so-called are but
obscurations, during which periods Nature, i.e., everything
visible and invisible on a resting planet-remains in
statu quo. Nature rests and slumbers, no work of destruction
going on on the globe even if no active work is done.
All forms, as well as their astral types, remain as
they were at the last moment of its activity. The "night"
of a planet has hardly any twilight preceding it. It
is caught like a huge mammoth by an avalanche, and remains
slumbering and frozen till the next dawn of its new
day--a very short one indeed in comparison to the "Day
of Brahmâ." (SD footnote p.660)
It is fair to say that many pages of the Secret Doctrine
have not stood the test of time. The discovery of DNA
is not anticipated, and the controversies of the 1880's
are irrelevant to the modern reader. The style of writing
is not helpful - one has to 'dig out' the relevant bits.
The excavation process hardly seems worth it sometimes.
Throughout these passages, the SD insists
on the existence of 30ft tall human beings in the Atlantean
(Miocene) times. No conclusive evidence of this has yet
been found. Your author confesses that he feels little
sense of kinship with these beings, perhaps because it
is very hard to imagine anything except our present humans
- Theosophy might describe this as a "ring-pass-not"
imposed on our thoughts.
Both Theosophy and Science must remain NON-PROVEN
for now.
Most authors on Theosophy try to explain
- I have taken an alternative approach: to extract what
appear to be the most important passages from the SD,
and then to try and piece them together like a jigsaw,
with a minimum of my own interpretation. The resulting
picture has its positive elements, and there are also
gaps and faults. I apologise if the fault is with me -
my selection and arrangement of the passages may be faulty,
and my interpretations may be misleading - I would be
grateful for any references to passages I have missed,
and any other corrections.
|