The Theosophical Society,
The Planetary Chains
From
A Textbook of Theosophy
By
C
The
scheme of evolution of which our Earth forms a part is not the only one in
our solar system, for ten separate chains of globes
exist in that system which
are all of them theatres of somewhat similar
progress. Each of these schemes of
evolution is taking place upon a chain of globes,
and in the course of each
scheme its chain of globes goes through seven
incarnations. The plan, alike of
each scheme as a whole and of the successive
incarnations of its chain of
globes, is to dip step by step more deeply into
matter, and then to rise step by
step out of it again.
Each
chain consists of seven globes, and both globes and chains observe the rule of
descending into matter and then rising out of it again. In order to make this comprehensible
let us take as an example the chain to which our Earth belongs.
At
the present time it is in its fourth or most material incarnation, and
therefore three of its globes belong to the
physical world, two to the astral
world and two to the lower part of the mental world.
The wave of Divine Life
passes in succession from globe to globe of this
chain, beginning with one of
the highest, descending gradually to the lowest and
then climbing again to the
same level as that at which it began.
Let
us for convenience of reference label the seven globes by the earlier letters
of the alphabet, and number the incarnations in order. Thus, as this is the
fourth incarnation of our chain, the first globe in this incarnation will be
4A, the second 4B, the third 4C, the fourth (which is our Earth) 4D, and so on.
These
globes are not all composed of physical matter. 4A contains no matter
lower than that of the mental world; it has its
counterpart in all the worlds higher than that, but nothing below it. 4B exists
in the astral world; but 4C is a physical globe, visible to our telescope, and
is in fact the planet which we know as Mars. Globe 4D is our own Earth, on
which the life-wave of the chain is at present in action. Globe 4E is the
planet which we call Mercury – also in the physical
world. Globe 4F is in the astral world, corresponding
on the ascending arc to globe 4B in the descent; while globe 4G corresponds to
globe 4A in having its lowest manifestation in the lower part of the mental world.
Thus it will be seen that we have a scheme of globes starting in the lower
mental world, dipping
through the astral into the physical and then
rising into the lower mental through the astral again.
Just
as the succession of the globes in a chain constitutes a descent into matter
and an ascent from it again, so do the successive incarnations of a chain. We
have described the condition of affairs in the fourth incarnation; looking back
at the third, we find that that commences not on the lower level of the mental
world but on the higher. Globes 3A and 3G, then, are both of higher mental
matter, while globes (Page123) 3B and 3F are at the lower mental level. Globes 3C and 3E belong to the astral world, and only globe 3D is
visible in the physical world. Although this third incarnation of our chain is
long past, the corpse of this physical globe 3D is still visible to us in the
shape of that dead planet the Moon, whence that third incarnation is usually
called the lunar chain.
The
fifth incarnation of our chain, which still lies very far in the future, will
correspond to the third. In that, globes 5A and 5G will be built of higher mental
matter, globes 5B and 5F of lower mental matter, globes 5C and 5E of astral
matter, and only globe 5D will be in the physical world. This planet 5D is of
course not yet in existence.
The
other incarnations of the chain follow the same general rule of gradually
decreasing materiality; 2A, 2G, 6A and 6G are all
in the intuitional world; 2B,
2F,
6B and 6F are all in the higher part of the mental world; 2C, 2E, 6C and 6E
are in the lower part of the mental world; 2D and
6D are in the astral world. In
the
same way 1A, 1G, 7A and 7G belong to the spiritual world; 1B, 1F, 7B and 7F are
in the intuitional world; 1C, 1E, 7C and 7E are in the higher part of the
mental world; 1D and 7D are in the lower part of the
mental world.
Thus
it will be seen that not only does the life-wave in passing through one
chain of globes dip down into matter and rise out of
it again, but the chain
itself in its successive incarnations does exactly the
same thing.
There
are ten schemes of evolution at present existing in our solar system, but
only seven of them are at the stage where they have
planets in the physical
world. These are:
(1)
that of an unrecognized planet Vulcan, very near the
sun, about which we have very little definite information. It was seen by the
astronomer Hersche, but is now said to have
disappeared. We at firstunderstood that it was in its
third incarnation; but it is now regarded as possible that it has recently
passed from its fifth to its sixth chain, which would account for its alleged
disappearance;
(2)
that of Venus, which is in its fifth incarnation, and
also therefore has only one visible globe;
(3)
that of the Earth, Mars and Mercury, which has three
visible planets because it is in its fourth incarnation;
(4)
that of Jupiter,
(5)
that of Saturn,
(6)
that of Uranus, all in their third incarnations; and
(7)
that of
In
each incarnation of a chain (commonly called a chain-period) the wave of
Divine
Life moves seven times round the chain of seven planets, and each such
movement is spoken of as a round. The time that
the life-wave stays upon each
planet, is known as a world-period, and in the course
of a world-period there
are seven great root-races. As has been previously
explained, these are
subdivided into sub-races, and those again into
branch races. For convenience of reference we may state this in tabular form:
7Branch-Races1- Sub-Race
7Sub-Races1-Root-Race
7Root-Races1-World-Period
7World-Periods1-Round
7Rounds1-Chain-Period
7Chain-Periods1-Scheme
of Evolution
10Schemes of EvolutionOur System Evolution
It
is clear that the fourth root-race of the fourth globe of the fourth round of a
fourth chain-period would be the central point of a whole scheme of evolution,
and we find ourselves at the present moment only a
little past the point. The
Aryan
race, to which we belong, is the fifth root-race of the fourth globe, so
that the actual middle point fell in the time of the
last great root-race, the Atlantean. Consequently the
human race as a whole is very little more than
halfway through its evolution, and those few
souls who are already nearing
Adeptship, which is the end and crown of this
evolution, are very far in advance
of their fellows.
How
do they come to be so far in advance? Partly and in some cases because they have
worked harder, but usually because they are older egos – because they were individualized
out of the animal kingdom at an earlier date, and so have had
more time for the human part of their evolution.
Any
given wave of life sent forth from the Deity usually spends a chain-period
in each of the great kingdoms of nature. That
which in our first chain was
ensouling the first elemental
kingdom must have ensouled in the second of those
kingdoms in the second chain, the third of them
in the Moon-chain, and is now in the mineral kingdom in the fourth chain. In
the future fifth chain it will
ensoul the vegetable kingdom,
in the sixth the animal, and in the seventh it
will attain humanity.
From
this it follows that we ourselves represented the mineral kingdom on the
first chain, the vegetable on the second, and the
animal on the lunar chain. There some of us attained our individualization, and
so we were enabled to enter this Earth-chain as men. Others who were a little
more backward did not succeed in attaining it, and so had to be born into this
chain as animals for a while before they could reach humanity.
Not
all of mankind, however, entered this chain together. When the lunar chain
came to its end the humanity upon it stood at
various levels. Not Adeptship, but
what is now for us the fourth step on the Path, was
the goal appointed for that
chain. Those who had attained it (commonly called in
theosophical literature the
Lords
of the Moon) had, as is usual, seven choices before them as to the way in
which they would serve. Only one of those choices
brought them, or rather a few of them, over into this Earth-chain, to act as guides
and teachers to the
earlier races. A considerable proportion – a
vast proportion, indeed – of the
Moon-men
had not attained that level, and consequently had to appear in this
Earth-chain as humanity. Besides this, a great
mass of the animal kingdom of the
Moon-chain
was surging up to the level of individualization, and some of its
members had already reached it, while many
others had not. These latter needed
further animal incarnations upon the
Earth-chain, and for the moment may be put
aside.
There
were many classes even among humanity, and the manner in which these
distributed themselves over the Earth-chain needs
some explanation. It is the
general rule that those who have attained the
highest possible in any chain, on
any globe, in any root-race, are not born into the
beginning of the next chain, globe or race, respectively. The earlier stages
are always for the backward
entities,
and only when they have already passed through a good deal of evolution and are
beginning to approach the level of those others who had done
better, do the latter descend into incarnation and
join them once more. That is
to
say, almost the earlier half of any period of evolution, whether it be a race,
a globe or a chain, seems to be devoted to bringing the backward people up to
nearly the level of those who have got on better; then these latter also (who,
in the meantime, have been resting in great enjoyment in the mental world) descend
into incarnation along with the others, and they press on together until the
end of the period.
Thus
the first of the egos from the Moon who entered the Earth-chain were by no means
the most advanced. Indeed they may be described as the least advanced of those
who had succeeded in attaining humanity – the animal-men. Coming as they did
into a chain of new globes, freshly aggregated, they had to establish the forms
in all the different kingdoms of Nature. This needs to be done at the beginning
of the first round in a new chain, but never after that; for though the
life-wave is centered only upon one of the seven globes of a chain at any given
time, yet life has not entirely departed from the other globes. At the
present moment, for example, the life-wave of
our chain is centered in this Earth, but on the other two physical globes of
our chain, Mars and Mercury, life still exists. There is still a population,
human, animal and vegetable, andconsequently when the
life-wave goes round again to either of those planets there will be no
necessity for the creation of new forms. The old types are already there, and
all that will happen
will be a sudden marvellous fecundity,
so that the various kingdoms will quickly increase and multiply, and make a
rapidly increasing population instead of a stationary one.
It
was, then, the animal-men, the lowest class of human beings of the Moon-chain,
who established the forms in the first round of the Earth-chain. Pressing
closely after them were the highest of the lunar animal kingdom, who were soon ready to occupy the forms which had just been
made. In the second journey round the seven globes of the Earth-chain, the
animal-men who had been the most backward of the lunar humanity were leaders of
this terrene humanity, the highest of the moon-animals making its less
developed grades. The same thing went on in the third round of the Earth-chain,
more and more of the lunar animals attaining individualization and joining the
human ranks, until in the middle of that round on this very globe D which we
call the Earth, a higher class of human beings – the Second Order of moon-men –
descended into incarnation and at once took the lead.
When
we come to the fourth, our present round, we find the First Order of the
moon-men pouring in upon us – all the highest and
the best of the lunar humanity who had only just fallen short of success. Some
of those who had already, even on the Moon, entered upon the Path soon attained
its end, became
Adepts
and passed away from the Earth. Some few others who had not been quite so far
advanced have attained Adeptship only comparatively
recently – that is, within the last few thousand years, and these are the
Adepts of the present day.
We,
who find ourselves in the higher races of humanity now, were several stages
behind Them, but the opportunity lies before us of
following in Their steps if
we will.
The
evolution of which we have been speaking is that of the ego himself, of what
might be called the soul of man; but at the same time
there has been also an
evolution of the body. The forms built in the
first round were very different from any of which we know anything now.
Properly speaking, those which were made on our physical earth can scarcely be
called forms at all, for they were constructed of etheric
matter only, and resembled vague, drifting and almost
shapeless clouds. In the second round they were
definitely physical, but still
shapeless and light enough to float about in
currents of wind.
Only
in the third round did they begin to bear any kind of resemblance to man as
we know him today. The very methods of
reproduction of those primitive forms
differed from those of humanity today, and far
more resembled those which we now find only in very much lower types of life.
Man in those early days was
androgynous, and a definite separation into the
sexes took place only about the
middle of the third round. From that time onward until
now the shape of man has been steadily evolving along definitely human lines,
becoming smaller and more compact than it was, learning to stand upright
instead of stooping and
crawling, and generally differentiating itself
from the animal forms out of which it had been evolved.
One
curious break in the regularity of this evolution deserves mention. On this
globe, in this fourth round, there was a departure
from the straightforward
scheme of evolution. This being the middle globe of a
middle round, the midmost point of evolution upon it marked the last movement
at which it was possible for members of what had been the lunar animal kingdom
to attain individualization.
Consequently
a sort of strong effort was made – a special scheme was arranged to give a
final chance to as many as possible. The conditions of the first and
second rounds were specially reproduced in place of
the first and second races – conditions of which in the earlier rounds these
backward egos had not been able fully to take advantage. Now, with the
additional evolution which they had
undergone during the third round, some of them
were able to take such
advantage, and so they rushed in at the very last
moment before the door was shut, and became just human. Naturally they will not
reach any high level of human development, but at least when they try again in
some future chain it will be some advantage to them to have had even this
slight experience of human life.
Our
terrestrial evolution received a most valuable stimulus from the assistance
given to us by our sister globe, Venus. Venus is at present in the fifth
incarnation of its chain, and in the seventh round of that incarnation, so that
its inhabitants are a whole chain and a half in front of us in evolution.
Since,
therefore, its people are so much more developed than ours, it was
thought desirable that certain Adepts from the
Venus evolution should be
transferred to our Earth in order to assist in the
specially busy time just before the closing of the door, in the middle of the
fourth root-race.
These
august Beings have been called the Lords of the Flame and the Children of the
Fire-mist, and They have produced a wonderful effect
upon ourevolution. The intellect of which we are so
proud is almost entirely due to Their presence, for in
the natural course of events the next round, the fifth, should be that of
intellectual advancement, and in
this our present fourth round we should be
devoting ourselves chiefly to the cultivation of
the emotions. We are therefore
in reality a long way in advance of the program
marked out for us; and such
advance is entirely due to the assistance given
by these great Lords of the
Flame. Most of Them stayed with us only through that
critical period of our
history; a few still remain to hold the highest
offices of the Great White
Brotherhood
until the time when men of our own evolution shall have risen to
such a height as to be capable of relieving their
august Visitors.
The
evolution lying before us in both of the life and of the form; for in future
rounds, while the egos will be steadily growing in power, wisdom and love, the
physical forms also will be more beautiful and more perfect than they have ever
yet been. We have in this world at the present time men at widely differing
stages of evolution, and it is clear that there are vast hosts of savages who
are far behind the great civilized races of the world – so far behind that it
is quite impossible that they can overtake them. Later on in the course of our
evolution a point will be reached at which it is no longer possible for those
undeveloped souls to advance side by side with the others, so that it will be
necessary that a division should be made.
The
proceeding is exactly analogous to the sorting out by a schoolmaster of the
boys in his class. During the school year he has to
prepare his boys for a certain examination, and by perhaps the middle of that
school year he knows quite well which of them will pass it. If he should have
in his class some who are hopelessly behind the rest, he might reasonably say
to them when the middle
period was reached:
“It
is quite useless for you to continue with your fellows, for the more difficult
lessons which I shall now have to give will be entirely unintelligible to you.
It is impossible that you can learn enough in the time to pass the examination,
so that the effort would only be a useless strain for you, and meantime you
would be a hindrance to the rest of the class. It is therefore far better for
you to give up
striving
after the impossible, and to take up again the work of the lower class which
you did not do perfectly, and then to offer yourselves for this examination
along with next year’s class, for what is now impossible for you will then be
easy”.
This
is in effect exactly what is said at a certain stage in our future evolution,
to the most backward egos. They drop out of this year’s class and come along
with the next one. This is the “aeonian condemnation”
to which reference was made a little while ago. It is computed that about two
fifths of humanity will drop out of the class in this way, leaving the
remaining three fifths to go on with far greater rapidity to the glorious
destinies which lie before them.
The Theosophical Society,