The Secret Doctrine, page 152
After this one can turn with more confidence to the words of a Master who wrote, several years before these words were penned by Mr. Gould:
The Fourth Race had its periods of the highest civilization. Greek and Roman and even Egyptian civilizations are nothing compared to the civilizations that began with the Third Race (—after its separation).
But if this civilization and the mastery of arts and sciences are denied to the Third and Fourth Races, no one will deny that between the great civilizations of antiquity, such as those of Egypt and India, there stretched the dark ages of crass ignorance and barbarism ever since the beginning of the Christian era up to our modern civilization, during which period all recollection of these traditions was lost. As said in Isis Unveiled:
Why should we forget that, ages before the prows of the adventurous Genoese clove the Western waters, the Phœnician vessels had circumnavigated the Globe, and spread civilization in regions now silent and deserted? What Archæologist will dare assert that the same hand which planned the Pyramids of Egypt, Karnak, and the thousand ruins now crumbling to oblivion on the sandy banks of the Nile, did not erect the monumental Nagkon-Wat of Cambodia; or trace the hieroglyphics on the obelisks and doors of the deserted Indian village, newly discovered in British Columbia by Lord Dufferin; or those on the ruins of Palenque and Uxmal, of Central America? Do not the relics we treasure in our museums—last mementoes of the long “lost arts”—speak loudly in favour of ancient civilization? And do they not prove, over and over again, that nations and continents that have passed away have buried along with them arts and sciences, which neither the first crucible ever heated in a mediæval cloister, nor the last cracked by a modern chemist, have revived, nor will—at least, in the present century.
And the same question may be put now that was put then; it may be once more asked:
How does it happen that the most advanced standpoint that has been reached in our times, only enables us to see in the dim distance up the Alpine path of knowledge the monumental proofs that earlier explorers have left to mark the plateaux they had reached and occupied?
If modern masters are so much in advance of the old ones, why do they not restore to us the lost arts of our postdiluvian forefathers? Why do they not give us the unfading colours of Luxor—the Tyrian purple, the bright vermilion, and dazzling blue which decorate the walls of this place, and are as bright as on the first day of their application; the indestructible cement of the pyramids and of ancient aqueducts; the Damascus blade, which can be turned like a corkscrew in its scabbard without breaking; the gorgeous, unparalleled tints of the stained glass that is found amid the dust of old ruins and beams in the windows of ancient cathedrals; and the secret of the true malleable glass? And if Chemistry is so little able to rival even the early mediæval ages in some arts, why boast of achievements which, according to strong probability, were perfectly known thousands of years ago. The more Archæology and Philology advance, the more humiliating to our pride are the discoveries which are daily made, the more glorious testimony do they bear in behalf of those who, perhaps on account of the distance of their remote antiquity, have been until now considered ignorant flounderers in the deepest mire of superstition.
Among other Arts and Sciences, the Ancients—ay, as an heirloom from the Atlanteans—had those of Astronomy and Symbolism, which included the knowledge of the Zodiac.
As already explained, the whole of Antiquity believed, with good reason, that humanity and its races are all intimately connected with the Planets, and these with the Zodiacal Signs. The whole world's history is recorded in the latter. In the ancient temples of Egypt there is an example in the Dendera Zodiac; but except in an Arabic work, the property of a Sûfî, the writer has never met with a correct copy of these marvellous records of the past—and also of the future—history of our Globe. Yet the original records exist, most undeniably.
As Europeans are unacquainted with the real Zodiacs of India, and those they do happen to know of they fail to understand, as witness Bentley, the reader is advised, in order to verify the statement, to turn to the work of Denon999 in which the two famous Egyptian Zodiacs can be found and examined. Having seen them personally, the writer has no longer need to trust to what other students—who have examined and studied both very carefully—have to say of them. The assertion of the Egyptian Priests to Herodotus, that the terrestrial Pole and the Pole of the Ecliptic had formerly coincided, has been corroborated by Mackey, who states that the Poles are represented on the Zodiacs in both positions.
And in that which shows the Poles (polar axes) at right angles, there are marks which show, that it was not the last time they were in that position; but the first(—after the Zodiacs had been traced). Capricorn, is, therein, represented at the North Pole; and Cancer is divided, near its middle, at the South Pole; which is a confirmation that, originally they had their winter when the Sun was in Cancer. But the chief characteristics of its being a monument commemorating the first timethat the Pole had been in that position, are the Lion and the Virgin.1000
Broadly calculated, it is believed by Egyptologists that the Great Pyramid was built 3,350 b.c.;1001 and that Menes and his Dynasty existed 750 years before the appearance of the Fourth Dynasty—during which the Pyramids are supposed to have been built. Thus 4,100 years b.c. is the age assigned to Menes. Now Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's declaration that all the facts lead to the conclusion that the Egyptians had already—
Made very great progress in the arts of civilization before the age of Menes, and perhaps before they immigrated into the valley of the Nile—1002
is very suggestive, as destroying this hypothesis of the comparatively modern civilizing of Egypt. It points to a great civilization in pre-historic times, and a still greater antiquity. The Schesoo-Hor, the “servants of Horus,” were the people who had settled in Egypt; and, as M. Maspéro affirms, it is to this “pre-historic race” that—
Belongs the honour of having constituted Egypt, such as we know it, from the commencement of the historic period.
And Staniland Wake adds:
They founded the principal cities of Egypt, and established the most important sanctuaries.1003
This was before the Great Pyramid epoch, and when Egypt had hardly arisen from the waters. Yet:
They possessed the hieroglyphic form of writing special to the Egyptians, and must have been already considerably advanced in civilization.
As says Lenormant:
It was the country of the great pre-historic sanctuaries, seats of the sacerdotal dominion, which played the most important part in the origin of civilization.
What is the date assigned to this people? We hear of 4,000, at the utmost of 5,000, years b.c. (Maspéro). Now it is claimed that it is by means of the Cycle of 25,868 years (the Sidereal Year) that the approximate year of the erection of the Great Pyramid can be ascertained.
Assuming that the long narrow downward passage leading from the entrance was directed towards the pole-star of the pyramid builders, astronomers have shown that in the year 2,170 b.c. the passage pointed to Alpha Draconis, the then pole-star.... Mr. Richard A. Proctor, the astronomer, after stating that the pole-star was in the required position about 3,350 b.c., as well as in 2,170 b.c., says: “either of these would correspond with the position of the descending passage in the Great Pyramid; but Egyptologists tell us there can absolutely be no doubt that the later epoch is far too late.”1004
But we are also told that:
This relative position of Alpha Draconis and Alcyone being an extraordinary one ... it could not occur again for a whole Sidereal Year.1005
This demonstrates that, since the Dendera Zodiac shows the passage of three Sidereal Years, the Great Pyramid must have been built 78,000 years ago, or in any case that this possibility deserves to be accepted at least as readily as the later date of 3,350 b.c.
Now on the Zodiac of a certain temple in far Northern India, the same characteristics of the signs as on the Dendera Zodiac are found. Those who know the Hindû symbols and constellations well, will be able to find out from the description of the Egyptian, whether the indications of time are correct or not. On the Dendera Zodiac, as preserved by the modern Egyptian Coptic and Greek Adepts, and explained a little differently by Mackey, the Dion stands upon the Hydra and his tail is almost straight, pointing downwards at an angle of forty or fifty degrees, this position agreeing with the original conformation of these constellations. But adds Mackey:
In many places we see the Lion (Sinha), with his tail turned up over his back, and ending with a Serpent's head; thereby, shewing that the Lion had been inverted: which, indeed, must have been the case with the whole Zodiac, and every other Constellation, when the Pole had been inverted.
Speaking of the circular Zodiac, which is also given by Denon, he says:
There ... the Lion is standing on the Serpent, and his tail forming a curve downward, from which we find that, though six or seven hundred thousand years must have passed between the two positions, yet they had made but little or no difference in the Constellations of Leo and the Hydra; while Virgo is represented very differently in the two—in the circular Zodiac, the Virgin is nursing her child: but it seems that they had not had that idea when the Pole was first within the plane of the Ecliptic; for in this Zodiac, as given by Denon, we see three Virgins between the Lion and the Scales, the last of which holds, in her hand, an ear of wheat. It is much to be lamented that, there is in this Zodiac a breach of the figures in the latter part of Leo and the beginning of Virgo, which has taken away one Decan out of each sign.1006
Nevertheless, the meaning is plain, as the three Zodiacs belong to three different epochs; namely, to the last three family races of the fourth sub-race of the Fifth Root-Race, each of which must have lived approximately from 25,000 to 30,000 years. The first of these, the “ryan-Asiatics,” witnessed the doom of the last of the populations of the Giant Atlanteans1007 (the Ruta and Daitya Island-Continents) who perished some 850,000 years ago, toward the close of the Miocene Age.1008 The fourth sub-race witnessed the destruction of the last remnant of the Atlanteans—the ryo-Atlanteans in the last island of Atlantis, namely, some 11,000 years ago. In order to understand this, the reader is asked to glance at the diagram of the Genealogical Tree of the Fifth Root-Race—generally, though hardly correctly, called the ryan Race—and the explanations appended to it.
Let the reader remember well that which is said of the divisions of Root-Races and the evolution of Humanity in this work, and stated clearly and concisely in Mr. Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism.
1. There are seven Rounds in every Manvantara; this Round is the Fourth, and we are in the Fifth Root-Race, at present.
2. Each Root-Race has seven sub-races.
3. Each sub-race has, in its turn, seven ramifications, which may be called “branch” or “family” races.
4. The little tribes, shoots, and offshoots of the last-named are countless, and depend on Karmic action.
Examine the Genealogical Tree hereto appended, and you will understand. The illustration is purely diagrammatic, and is only intended to assist the reader in obtaining a slight grasp of the subject, amidst the confusion which exists between the terms which have been used at different times for the divisions of Humanity. It is also here attempted to express in figures—but only within approximate limits, for the sake of comparison—the duration of time through which it is possible to definitely distinguish one division from another. It would only lead to hopeless confusion if any attempt were made to give accurate dates to a few; for the Races, sub-races, etc., down to their smallest ramifications, overlap and are entangled with each other until it is nearly impossible to separate them.
The Human Race has been compared to a tree, and this serves admirably as an illustration.
The main stem of a tree may be compared to the Root-Race (a).
Its larger limbs to the various sub-races; seven in number (b1, b2, etc.).
On each of these limbs are seven “branches,” or “family” races (c).
After this the cactus-plant is a better illustration, for its fleshy “leaves” are covered with sharp spines, each of which may be compared to a nation or tribe of human beings.
Now our Fifth Root-Race has already been in existence—as a Race sui generis and quite free from its parent stem—about 1,000,000 years; therefore it must be inferred that each of the four preceding sub-races has lived approximately 210,000 years; thus each family race has an average existence of about 30,000 years, and thus the European “family race” has still a good many thousand years to run, although the nations or the innumerable spines upon it, vary with each succeeding “season” of three or four thousand years. It is somewhat curious to mark the comparative approximation of duration between the lives of a “family race” and a Sidereal Year.
The knowledge of the foregoing, and the absolutely correct divisions of time, formed part and parcel of the Mysteries, where these Sciences were taught to the Disciples, and where they were transmitted by one Hierophant to another. Everyone is aware that the European Astronomers assign—arbitrarily enough—the date of the invention of the Egyptian Zodiac to the years 2,000 or 2,400 b.c. (Proctor); and insist that the date of this invention coincides with that of the erection of the Great Pyramid. This, to an Occultist and Eastern Astronomer, must appear quite absurd. The Cycle of the Kali Yuga is said to have begun between the 17th and 18th of February in the year 3,102 b.c. Now the Hindûs claim that in the year 20,400 before Kali Yugam, the origin of their Zodiac coincided with the Spring Equinox—there being at the time a conjunction of the Sun and Moon—and Bailly proved by a lengthy and careful computation of that date, that, even if fictitious, the epoch from which they had started to establish the beginning of their Kali Yuga was very real. That “epoch is the year 3,102 before our era,” he writes.1009 The lunar eclipse arriving just a fortnight after the beginning of the Black Age—it took place in a point situated between the Wheat Ear of Virgo and the star Θ of the same constellation. One of their most esoteric Cycles is based upon certain conjunctions and respective positions of Virgo and the Pleiades (Krittika). Hence, as the Egyptians brought their Zodiac from Southern India and Lankâ,1010 the esoteric meaning was evidently identical. The “three Virgins,” or Virgo in three different positions, meant, with both, the record of the first three “Divine or Astronomical Dynasties,” who taught the Third Root-Race; and after having abandoned the Atlanteans to their doom, returned, or redescended rather, during the third sub-race of the Fifth, in order to reveal to saved humanity the mysteries of their birth-place—the Sidereal Heavens. The same symbolical record of the human Races and the three Dynasties (Gods, Manes—Semi-divine Astrals of the Third and Fourth—and the Heroes of the Fifth Race) which preceded the purely human kings, was found in the distribution of the tiers and passages of the Egyptian Labyrinth. As the three inversions of the Poles of course changed the face of the Zodiac, a new one had to be constructed each time. In Mackey's Sphinxiad the speculations of the bold author must have horrified the orthodox portion of the population of Norwich, for he says, fantastically enough:
But, after all, the greatest length of time recorded by those monuments (the Labyrinth, the Pyramids and the Zodiacs) does not exceed five millions of years:1011which falls short of the records given us both by the (esoteric) Chinese and Hindoos: which latter nation has registered a knowledge of time for seven or eight millions of years:1012 which I have seen upon a talisman of porcelain.1013
The Egyptian priests had the Zodiacs of the Atlantean Asura Maya, as the modern Hindûs still have. As stated in Esoteric Buddhism, the Egyptians, as well as the Greeks and “Romans” some thousand years ago, were “remnants of the Atlanto-ryans”—the former, of the older, or the Ruta Atlanteans; the last-named, the descendants of the last race of that island, whose sudden disappearance was narrated to Solon by the Egyptian Initiates. The human Dynasty of the older Egyptians, beginning with Menes, had all the knowledge of the Atlanteans, though there was no longer Atlantean blood in their veins. Nevertheless, they had preserved all their Archaic Records. All this has been shown long ago.1014 And it is just because the Egyptian Zodiac is between 75,000 and 80,000 years old that the Zodiac of the Greeks is far later. Volney has correctly pointed out that it is only 16,984 years old, or up to the present date 17,082.1015
Conclusion.
Space forbids us to say anything more, and this part of The Secret Doctrine has to be closed. The forty-nine Stanzas and the few fragments from the Commentaries which have been given are all that can be published in these Volumes. These, with some still older Records—to which none but the highest Initiates have access—and a whole library of comments, glossaries, and explanations, form the synopsis of Man's Genesis.
It is from these Commentaries that we have hitherto quoted and tried to explain the hidden meaning of some of the allegories, thus showing the true views of Esoteric Antiquity upon Geology, Anthropology, and even Ethnology. In the Part which follows we will endeavour to establish a still closer metaphysical connection between the earliest Races and their Creators, the Divine Men from other Worlds; accompanying the statements proffered with the most important demonstrations of the same in Esoteric Astronomy and Symbolism.
The duration of the “periods” that separate, in space and time, the Fourth from the Fifth Race—in the historical1016 or even the legendary beginnings of the latter—is too tremendous for us to offer, even to a Theosophist, any more detailed accounts of them. During the course of the Post-diluvian Ages, which were marked at certain periodical epochs by the most terrible cataclysms, too many races and nations were born, and disappeared almost without leaving a trace, for anyone to offer any description of the slightest value concerning them. Whether the Masters of Wisdom have a full and consecutive history of our Race from its incipient stage down to the present times; whether they possess the uninterrupted record of man since he developed into a complete physical being, and became thereby the king of the animals and master on this Earth—is not for the writer to say. Most probably they have, and such is our own personal conviction. But if so, this knowledge is only for the highest Initiates, who do not take their students into their confidence. The writer can, therefore, give but what she has herself been taught, and no more, and even this will appear to the profane reader rather as a weird, fantastic dream, than as a possible reality.
