CHAPTER IX
THE KINGDOMS OF LIFE
Magnificently, as modern science has developed the concept of evolution, it has yet to come
to that breadth and grander which is revealed
in Theosophy. The word "life", especially
has, in Theosophical studies, a profounder
and more far-reaching significance; for life is
seen, not only, as with modern science, in the
small circle of existence which comprises the
human, animal and vegetable kingdoms, but
also as manifesting in the seeming dead matter
of minerals, and in organisms of invisible matter lower than minerals and higher than man.
In Fig. 68, we have briefly summarized the
wave of evolving life which leads up to humanity.
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A comparison of this figure with that
of Fig. 9 will show that there are other streams
of evolving life which, without touching the
human kingdom, pass, through levels which
correspond to that of humanity, into kingdoms
higher than man.
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Fig. 68, however, deals with those forms of
life, which, in their evolutionary growth, issue
in a humanity like ours. We see from it that,
stage by stage, the life of the Logos manifests
as three types of Elemental Essence, and then
subsequently as Mineral Life, Vegetable Life,
Animal Life and Humanity. The transition
from stage to stage was explained in the previous
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chapter, and, in Fig. 59, was shown the transition of the highest animal into the human
kingdom.
The seven stages of evolving life, from Elemental Essence I to Humanity, are called the
"Life Wave.". Other forms of life and consciousness are also, of course, "life waves";
but, for the clearer understanding of a difficult
topic, the term "life wave" is reserved for those
forms of life which are most closely related to
our humanity in a direct line of growth, as
shown in Fig. 68.
All these great changes involve vast periods
of time; nevertheless in each fraction. of time
the evolutionary work is done according to a
pre-destined plan. Each type of form and
consciousness appears in evolution only at its
given time, and always under the supervision of
those Workers in the Divine Plan whose function it is to supervise the intricate workings of
evolution. We must think of these periods of
time less in terms of actual years, and more in
terms of quotas of evolutionary work completed
in the furtherance of the Plan.
It was shown in Chapter II, on "The Rise
and Fall of Civilizations", that, during the time
that humanity exists on our Earth, seven great
Root-races appear, and that each of these
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Root-races has seven sub-races. The period of
time which is necessary to accomplish the work,
which has to be done through seven Root-races and their sub-races, is called a "World
Period ". During a World Period, the evolutionary scheme, as it affects the seven kingdoms
of our life wave, is in full operation; the life
wave may be said to begin with the appearance
of the first sub-race of the First Root-race, and
it ends when the seventh sub-race of the
Seventh Root-race has done its work.
When the allotted span of work for a particular World Period is finished, the life wave
passes from our Earth, to commence its evolution on another globe of our solar system. On
this new globe, each of the seven stages of life,
from Elemental Essence I to Humanity, resumes its work and continues
its further development. Once again, this development, so
far as humanity is concerned, takes place
through civilizations and cultures develop
in seven Root-races and their sub-races. At
the end of the evolutionary work on this
new globe, the life wave passes on to another
globe, there to resume its work under new
conditions, and accomplish the part in
evolution next allotted to it in the Great
Plan.
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The work of the life wave, with which humanity on this Earth is associated, will be
understood if we carefully study our next
diagram, Fig. 69.
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Our life wave requires for
invisible types of matter. These too have their
revolutions round the sun, as have the visible
planets, but their matter is of superphysical
states. Of these four invisible planets, two — B
and F — are of astral matter, and the remaining
two — A and G — of lower mental matter.
Each of these globes is separated in space from
all the others; each is a complete planet by
itself, just as are Mars, Earth and Mercury.
If we consult our diagram, and carefully
study that part of it which represents our Earth,
we shall see that the Earth is shown as being
composed of physical matter surrounded by
envelopes of astral, lower mental and higher
mental types of matter. It goes without saying
that each higher and finer type of matter interpenetrates all grosser than itself; thus the astral
envelope not only extends from the Earth's
surface miles upwards, but it also interpenetrates the Earth; and similarly, the envelope of
lower mental matter interpenetrates both the
astral world and the physical Earth. This
astral envelope round our Earth, and interpenetrating it, is our Astral Plane; the lower
mental matter is our Lower Heaven, and the
higher mental matter makes our Higher
Heaven. Associated with all these are, of
course, the higher planes of nature, composed
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of Buddhic, Atmic and higher types of matter
though they are not shown in the diagram.
But in a similar fashion, Mars, a physical
globe, has also an astral envelope, and two
envelopes of lower and highe:r mental matter.
The astral envelope interpenetrating the physical planet Mars is the astral plane of Mara.
This Martian astral plane is totally distinct
from the astral plane of our Earth. Moreover, just as there is no communication of a
physical kind through interplanetary space
between the Earth and Mars, so is there no
astral communication between the astral plane
of Mars and our astral plane. Mars also has
its lower heaven world and its higher heaven.
Exactly the same scheme holds good for Mercury, which has its own astral and lower and
higher mental planes. When we come to
planets B and F, we find that they have no
physical counterparts; they are astral planets,
but each planet has its own lower and higher
heavens and also higher planes still. Planets
A and G, it will be seen from the diagram, are
globes of lower mental matter; they too have
their higher mental, Buddhic, Atmic and
higher planes, but they have no planes below
the lower mental plane. We must think
then, of the seven planets — A, B, Mars, Earth
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Mercury, F and G — as complete in themselves,
and each revolving round the sun; but only
three of them are visible to our physical eyes.
We can now grasp in general outline the
work of the life wave. The life wave on the
Earth, at this actual moment, is doing the work,
so far as humanity is concerned, of the Third,
Fourth and Fifth Root-races, and it has progressed up to the point of starting the first
variants — the sixth sub-race of the Fifth Root-Race; they are now appearing in the United
States of America, Australia and New Zealand.
Side by side with the work of humanity is the
evolutionary work of animals, plants, minerals
and the three types of Elemental Essence.
There still remains to be done on the Earth
the work of the seventh sub-race of the Fifth
Root-race, and the vast work of the Sixth and
Seventh Root-races which are still to come,
with their respective sub-races and variations.
How many hundreds of thousands of years
more this work will require, we can scarcely
tell; but the life wave will not have accomplished the work set before it, during its occupation
of the Earth and its higher planes, till all this
further work comes to a successful conclusion.
When the seventh sub-race of the Seventh
Root-Race has given its message to evolution
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there is no more work to be done, for the time,
on the Earth; the life wave then passes on to
another planet, to begin there the next stage of
its unfoldment. This planet is Mercury. On
Mercury, as on the Earth, the life wave in all
its divisions, from Elemental Essence I to
Humanity, will continue its work from stage
to stage; in the human kingdom there will
be seven Root-races with their sub-races.
Each Root-race, through the structure of its
visible and invisible bodies, enables the development of some new form and expression of
consciousness and activity; hence the need
for the various Root-races and their sub-divisions.
After the life wave has finished on Mercury,
it will be transferred to the next planet, which
is F. On F, which is an astral planet and has
no physical counterpart, obviously there can be
no physical forms for the evolving life; that life
will have to do its work through forms of astral
and higher matter. After the life wave has
completed its work on planet F, it will then
be transferred to planet G. As this planet G
is composed of lower mental matter, all evolution will necessarily take place in forms of this
and finer types of matter. When the life wave
completes its work on planet G, it will pass on
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to evolutionary work on planet A. From A it
will pass on to B, where evolution will be
resumed again in astral forms. After the work
done on B, the life wave will pass on to Mars,
where work will be begun once again through
physical forms also. After the life wave completes its work on Mars, it will be transferred
to the Earth, there to begin another stage of
evolution through new human, animal and,
vegetable types. When the life wave has
completed its work on the seven planets in
succession, it will have taken a period of time
called a "Round".
In the description so far given of the transference of the life wave, it was made to start
from the Earth and to pass through Mercury,
F, G, A, B, Mars, to return to the Earth again,.
thus making a completed Round. In reality,
however, the life wave begins on planet A,
then passes on to planet B, and next to Mars,
Earth, Mercury; F and G. Our present life
wave, therefore, began long ages ago on planet.
A in the First Round, and has already gone
through three complete Rounds; only after this
work was done, began then the work of the
Fourth Round, on planet A. Then the life
wave passed on to B, and then to Mars, and so.
to the Earth; this is where it is today.
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In the evolutionary scheme, we are at present
on the fourth planet of the Fourth Round.
This is exactly midway in the larger scheme of
our eyolution, since the life wave has yet to
complete the Fourth Round bypassing to Mer-
cury, F and G, and then afterwards to complete
the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Rounds. When
the life wave has so passed through seven com-
plete Rounds in succession, the time occupied
in the process is called a Chain.
These facts are summarized in Fig. 70.
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Seven sub-races compose one Root-race; the
time occupied by seven Root-races is that of one World Period. Seven World Periods,
on seven successive globes while the life wave passes from one to another,
compose one Round. Seven Rounds, in each of which the
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life wave has passed from planet to planet,
compose one Chain.
The work of evolution, of all life and form in
the solar system is, however, not accomplished
within the period of one Chain. It is intended
in the Plan that, during the period of activity of
one Chain, one kingdom of life shall have
evolved to the next-higher kingdom; thus, that
which began as animal life at the beginning of
bur Chain, that is, on planet A of the First
Round, will rise to the stage of humanity at the
end of the Chain, which will be on planet G of
the Seventh Round; similarly, that which
began the Chain as vegetable life will, at its
ending, have risen to the animal life. If we
look back to Fig. 68, we see the various steps of
evolution of the kingdom of life; each step
requires one complete Chain.
When our Chain began on planet A of our
First Round, the work was commenced In all
the seven kingdoms, from the First Elemental
Essence to Humanity; but where did Humanity
achieve its human characteristics, and the animal life its animaL characteristics, so as to begin
the Chain already thus equipped? To answer
this we must turn to Fig. 71.
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We find in it,
as the fourth circle, the Earth Chain; this is
practically Fig. 69 in miniature, for we find
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Mars, Earth and Mercury as the three black
spheres denoting physical matter, while planets
B and F are marked as of astral matterm and planets A and G as of matter of the
lower mental plane. We see preceding the Fourth Chain a Third, called in the diagram the Moon
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Chain. In this Moon Chain we find that there
are seven globes, but only one of them is physical, while two are astral,
two are lower mental, and two higher mental.
Now, our life wave, before it entered our
Chain, the Earth Chain, was for countless ages
the life of the preceding Chain, the Moon
Chain; but the life wave on the Moon Chain
was exactly one stage earlier than what it is
today on the Earth Chain. That is to say,
that which is humanity now on the Earth
Chain was the animal kingdom of the Moon
Chain; our present animal kingdom of the
Earth Chain was the vegetable kingdom of the
Moon Chain; and similarly, all the other kingdoms of life on the Earth Chain were one stage
earlier on the Moon Chain.
In an exactly similar fashion, the kingdoms
of life of the Moon Chain themselves came into
it from an earlier Chain still, Chain No.2 on
the diagram. It will be seen that this Chain
has no physical planet at all, but is composed
of one astral, two lower mental, two higher
mental, and two planets of Buddhic matter.
Each kingdom of life on this Second Chain was
exactly one stage earlier than it was on the
Moon Chain; thus, that which was the animal
kingdom of the Moon Chain was the vegetable
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kingdom of Chain No.2. Chain No.2 itself
derived its life from an earlier Chain No. 1; in
this we have only one lower mental planet, two
higher mental, two of Buddhic matter, and two
of Nirvanic matter. The kingdoms of life on
this Chain No.1 were at one stage earlier than
they were on Chain No.2. To sum up, following the direction of evolution, that which began
on Chain No.1 as the mineral kingdom appeared on Chain No.2 as
the vegetable kingdom, and on Chain No.3 — the Moon Chain —
as the animal kingdom, and on Chain No. 4 —
our present Earth Chain — it is our Humanity.
When the work of this Earth Chain is completed at the end of the Seventh Round, each
kingdom of evolving life will have ascended
one stage; our animals of today will, at the
end of our Chain, have come to the human
level; our vegetable life will have entered into
the animal kingdom. Our Humanity will
have gone to a stage beyond humanity. The
Fifth Chain will be similar to the Third Chain,
so far, at least, as the nature of its globes is concerned; just as, on the Third Chain, there was
only one physical planet, so will there be but
one physical planet in the Fifth Chain, though
it will have. two astral planets, two of lower
mental matter, and two of higher mental.
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The constituent planets of Chains No.6 and
No.7 will be as marked on the diagram.
The work of the First, Second and Third
Chains is now over, and their planets have
disintegrated, except that the only physical
planet of the Third Chain still remains, though
shrunk, as the Moon which goes round the
Earth. The Moon has now on it none of the
life wave, and it is practically a dead planet,
waiting its final disintegration. Evolution is
now exactly midway among the seven Chains,
since our present Chain is the Fourth; and on
this Fourth Chain we are at the fourth planet
of the Fourth Round.
We have before us, when the work of the
Earth Chain is completed, work to be done by
the kingdoms of evolving life in the next, the
Fifth Chain. This Chain will have one physical planet, which will be made by coalescing
into one planetary mass the Asteroids, which
now make a ring of little planets between Mars
and Jupiter. By the time the Asteroids have
coalesced into a planet, and become the center
of evolution of the life wave, the work will have
been completed in the Earth Chain. Our
Earth will have become a dead planet with no
evolving life upon it; it will have shrunk in
size through loss of its liquids and gases and
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other causes, and It will then be attracted to the
physical planet of the new Chain and attached
to it as a Moon.
Our present animal kingdom will begin the
work of the Fifth Chain as its humanity; our
present vegetable kingdom will then be its
animal kingdom. In exactly a similar way,
the work in the Sixth and Seventh Chains,
which are yet to come, will be accomplished.
In each successive Chain the life evolves from
one kingdom to the next beyond it.
The work done through seven Chains in
succession makes one "Scheme of Evolution".
There are seven such Schemes of Evolution,
and over the work of each presides a Planetary
Logos; nay, more, each Scheme is the expression
of His exalted Life, and the seven Chains of
His Scheme are as successive incarnations of
that Life. Each of the seven Planetary Logoi
has thus before Him a Scheme of Evolution to
develop and guide; each Scheme involves
seven Chains, and each Chain requires seven
distinct globes.
There are now in the solar system seven
Schemes. of Evolution; they require, at some
stage of their work, a physical planet; the stage
of each of these seven Schemes is given in our
next diagram., Fig. 72. (We are told that there
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are three Schemes which require no physical
planet at all; but there is no information about
their arrangement.) The Schemes of Evolution which involve Vulcan, Jupiter, Saturn and
Uranus, are behind the Earth Scheme by one
Chain; the Neptune Scheme (which includes
Pluto and another planet not yet discovered)
is, like the Earth Scheme, at its Fourth Chain ...
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whereas the Venus Scheme of Evolution is in
advance of the Earth Scheme by one Chain.
It must be remembered that though a physical planet may not be able, owing to heat and
pressure or absence of atmosphere, to permit
life in such organisms as we have on our Earth,
nevertheless there are types of non-physical
evolution which can do their work efficiently on
the astral planes of planets, where physical life
is not possible.
It is because the Venus Scheme is one Chain
in advance of the Earth, and therefore the
average humanity of Venus is near the Adept
level, that Adepts from Venus were able to
help the work of the Earth Chain at its commencement, becoming Lords of Worlds,
Manus, Buddhas, Chohans, and other great
leaders of our evolution. These are the "gods"
and "divine rulers" of the myths of primitive
mankind. In exactly a similar fashion, such
of the Earth's humanity as attain Adeptship
at the end of the Earth Chain, and care to do
so, may begin helping the work of evolution
of the four backward Chains of the Vulcan,
Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus Schemes.
When an individual completes the work of
evolution set before him, he attains the level of
a Master of the Wisdom. He will attain this
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level, in the normal course of slow evolution, at
the end of the Seventh Round of this Chain;
but he may, by hastening his evolution, attain
Adeptship far earlier than this. A small number among the advanced souls of humanity
have already done so. Whenever a soul attains the Adept level,
and has gained such experiences as this Chain can afford him, he has
before him seven choices, regarding his future
growth and activity. These seven choices are
summarized in our next diagram, Fig. 73.
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Among the seven choices none is better than
the others; each Adept will choose his path
according to his temperment and the needs
of the Great Plan. A certain number, quite
a minority, decide to qualify themselves to
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become Manus, Buddhas, Chohans and other officials of the Hierarchy who
guide the evolution of the kingdoms of life on a globe; this
choice requires constant physical incarnation,
though, as an Adept, the need for incarnation
is long over. Adepts of another temperament,
while not desiring to take office as officials
of the Hierarchy, nevertheless remain with
humanity, and live in the invisible worlds as
"Nirmanakayas"; in this condition of existence, they create great spiritual forces, which
are then transferred to the members of the
Hierarchy to be used to further human
advancement.
A third type of Adept passes into the kingdom of the Devas or Angelic Hosts, there to
work sometimes indirectly with humanity as
Angels, and sometimes to do the work of the
Angelic Hosts in other parts of the solar system
than the Earth. Yet another type of Adept
enrolls himself in the "Staff Corps of the
Logos", training himself to work in any part
of the solar system, and in any work needed,
where he may be sent, in accordance with the
needs of the Plan. A certain number of Adepts
will choose to do the work of preparation necessary to initiate the Fifth Chain. The sixth
and seventh types of Adepts enter upon a
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phase of spiritual evolution and activity
incomprehensible to our consciousness, and
technically called "entering Nirvana"; they
do not achieve any kind of "annihilation" or
negativity, but give their splendid contribution to the Great Plan,
though in ways incomprehensible to our present limited human
consciousness.
All this process of evolution, taking millions
of years for its unfoldment, is far vaster than our
imagination can conceive. At each stage,
more power, wisdom and beauty are released
in the universe. The vegetable kingdom in
each Round is more highly evolved than the
vegetable kingdom of the previous Round; in
each Chain it is more evolved still. What our
present trees, plants and shrubs, with their exquisite foliage and flowers,
are to the antediluvian forests of tree ferns; what our birds,
with their gorgeous coloring, song and joyous
life, are to their ungainly, drab ancestors of
bygone ages; that too will the animal kingdom,
of Rounds and Chains to come, be to what is
the animal kingdom of the present Round.
Even the invisible atom evolves, Round by
Round and Chain by Chain; and all life grows
in greater self-expression and self-revelation
as the cycles go by.
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Man's life, too, changes Round by Round;
Our mental life will have in the next Round a
richness scarce to be grasped today, for our
lowest instrument of thinking, the brain, will be
composed of atoms of substances more evolved
than they are in this Fourth Round. Since
matter is force, and form is life, and man's
humanity is fundamentally Divinity, so,
wherever evolution is, there the Logos is at
work; and where He is, there a joyous work
comes, step by step, near to fulfilment.
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