Son en
número de siete, y están íntimamente relacionadas con la doctrina de la
Cadena planetaria. Admitida la séptuple naturaleza del hombre, cada uno
de sus principales guarda relación con un plano, un planeta y una raza.
Las Razas humanas nacen la una de la otra, crecen, se desarrollan,
envejecen y mueren. Las subrazas siguen la misma regla.
Cada Raza-madre,
con sus correspondientes subrazas e innumerables subdivisiones en
familias y tribus, es enteramente distinta de la Raza que la precede y
de la que le sigue. Cada una de las siete Razas, así como la más mínima
división de ellas, se divide en cuatro edades: de oro, de plata, de
bronce y de hierro.
De las siete Razas, cinco han aparecido ya y han
completado casi su cadena terrestre; y otras dos tienen que aparecer
todavía en esta Ronda. Nuestra quinta Raza-madre existe ya como Raza sui
géneris y por completo independiente de su tronco-padre, desde hace un
millón de años; de lo cual puede inferirse que cada una de sus cuatro subrazas precedentes ha vivido unos 210.000 años; así, cada raza-familia
tiene un promedio de existencia de unos 30.000 años; y así también la
raza-familia europea tiene aun bastante miles de años de vida, aun
cuando las naciones, o sean las innumerables espinas que hay en ella,
varían con cada "estación" sucesiva de tres o cuatro mil años. (Doctr.
Secr., II, 453, 454).
La quinta Raza (la aria) es la que actualmente
sigue su curso en nuestro globo, coexistiendo con una gran parte de la
cuarta Raza (constituída por los tártaros, chinos y mongoles), y con
algunos restos de la tercera (aborígenes de la Australia y hotentotes).
-El curso de las Razas humanas corresponde a los grandes períodos de
involución o descenso, de equilibrio y de evolución o ascenso. (Véase:
Cadena planetaria).
En el período de involución, o descenso, se
desarrollaron las tres primeras Razas; en el de equilibrio se
desenvolvió la cuarta Raza, y el período de evolución o ascenso
corresponde a las Razas quinta, sexta y séptima. (Doctr. Secr., passim).
Primera Raza
- Apareció bajo la protección del Sol (o más bien de Urano,
que místicamente lo representa). Por residir la conciencia en el plano âtmico, estas formas fueron denominadas Raza de los Dioses, hijos del
Yoga, (pues los Pitris emanaron sus sombras (chhâyâs) mientras se
hallaban entregados a la meditación), y nacidos de sí mismos, por no
haberlos procreado padres humanos. Son formas enormes, filamentosas,
proteicas y etéreas, bhûtas sin sexo, exudadas de los etéreos cuerpos de
sus progenitores. Podían estos seres estar parados, andar, correr, volar;
sin embargo, no eran más que un chhâyâ, una sombra insensible, dotada
sólo de un oído rudimentario y de una vaga conciencia del fuego.
Esta
Raza se reproducía por escisión o brote; el individuo crecía, aumentaba
en tamaño, y entonces se dividía en dos mitades iguales, al principio, y
en sus últimas etapas en porciones desiguales, de las que dimanaban
seres más pequeños, que a su vez crecían y daban origen a nueva prole.
En esta primera Raza no hubo ninguna primera subraza definida, si bien
podemos indicar siete etapas de desarrollo o cambios evolucionarios.
Ninguno de estos seres podía morir, "ni el fuego ni el agua podían
destruirlos". El fuego era su elemento.
Esta Raza residía en la primera
tierra firme que apareció en el globo, el pico del Monte Merú, el
extremo del polo Norte, el comienzo de la imperecedera Tierra Sagrada,
la tierra de los devas, llamada también Zvetadvîpa, la Isla Blanca o
Tierra central, cuyo clima era como el de una deliciosa primavera. Esta
tierra ha de ser sucesivamente la cuna de cada Raza humana bajo el
Imperio de Dhruva, el Señor de la Estrella Polar, cualquiera que sea el
punto adonde haya de dirigirse después de su nacimiento.
Segunda Raza
- Nació bajo la influencia del planeta Júpiter (Brihaspati).
Los espíritus de la Naturaleza o devas inferiores conglomeraron en
derredor de los chhâyâs (sombras) películas de materia más densa,
formando una especie de tupida envoltura externa, y lo exterior, (el
chhâyâ) de la primera Raza vino a ser lo interior (el doble etéreo) de
la segunda. Estas formas filamentosas y de brillantes colores (amarillo
de oro, anaranjado, etc.), heterogéneas en apariencia, de figura diversa,
semejaban vegetales o animales, y a menudo tenían unos contornos
semihumanos.
Flotaban en el espacio, trepaban, deslizábanse de acá para
acullá, y se llamaban con unos sonidos aflautados. La conciencia de la
Mónada en esta Raza responde débilmente a la conciencia búddhica.
Adquiere un nuevo sentido, el del tacto, respondiendo así a las
impresiones del aire y del fuego. Esta Raza ofrecía dos principales
tipos de reproducción: por expansión y brote (generación sexual), y por
medio del sudor con indicios de sexualidad, por lo que se dio a sus
individuos el nombre de andróginos latentes.
Esta Raza pasó a residir en
el segundo Continente, llamado Hiperbóreo o Plakcha, que ocupaba el
actual norte de Asia, junto con Groenlandia y la península de Kamschatka.
Formaban también parte de este continente la isla de Spitzber, Suecia y
Noruega, extendiéndose por el sudoeste hasta más allá de las Islas
Británicas. La bahía de Baffin era entonces tierra firme. El clima era
tropical, y el suelo estaba cubierto de abundante vegetación.
Tercera Raza (Lemuriana)
- Ofrece tres tipos perfectamente definidos que
designaremos con los nombres de tercera prima, tercera media y tercera
última. La tercera prima nació bajo el imperio de Zukra (Venus), gracias
a cuya influencia se desarrollaron los hermafroditas, quedando las razas
separadas bajo Lohitânga (Marte), que es la encarnación de Kâma o
naturaleza pasional. Como todas las formas entonces existentes en la
tierra, el hombre era de estatura gigantesca.
Era rojo con mucha
variedad de matices; tenía la frente deprimida, la nariz chata y las
mandíbulas abultadas y salientes. Los divinos andróginos eran de un
hermoso y espléndido tinte rojo dorado. En esta Raza se desarrolló el
órgano de la visión; al principio era un ojo único en medio de la frente
(llamado más tarde tercer ojo), que brillaba como una joya en su órbita;
más adelante fueron dos ojos, pero éstos no tuvieron completo uso hasta
la tercera subraza de la tercera Raza; y únicamente en la cuarta Raza,
cuando el tercer ojo retrocedió al interior convirtiéndose en glándula
pineal, añadió el sentido de la vista a los del oído y del tacto.
En
cuanto a la conciencia, la tercera Raza, por su contacto con Âtma-Buddhi-Manas, demostró trinidad. A la conciencia de los contactos
del fuego y del aire, añadió los del agua. El lenguaje pasó a ser
monosílabico. La reproducción era de tres tipos: en la primera subraza
se efectuaba por gotas de sudor, y apenas se distinguía el signo sexual
en el cuerpo; gradualmente apareció la generación ovípara (tercera y
cuarta subraza), produciendo seres hermafroditas al principio, y más
tarde con predominio de un solo sexo, hasta que por fin nacieron del
huevo varones y hembras; en la quinta subraza empieza el huevo a quedar
retenido en el seno materno, y nace la criatura débil y desvalida; por
último, en la sexta y séptima subrazas ya es general la generación por
ayuntamiento de sexos.
El hombre de la tercera Raza era contemporáneo
del pterodáctilo, del megalosauro y otros animales gigantescos. La cuna
de esta Raza fue la Lemuria, llamada Zâlmali en las historias antiguas.
Cuarta Raza (Atlántica)
- Fue engendrada por la tercera Raza unos ocho
millones de años atrás, a cuyo fin el Manú de la cuarta Raza eligió de
entre la anterior los tipos más adecuados, a quienes condujo a la
imperecedera Tierra sagrada para librarlos del cataclismo lemuriano.
Nació la cuarta Raza bajo la influencia de Soma (la Luna) y de Zani (Saturno);
a la influencia de este último astro se debió en parte muy principal el
gran desarrollo de la inteligencia concreta que caracteriza la subraza
tolteca.
El lenguaje era aglutinante; pero andando el tiempo adquirió
flexión, y en esa modalidad se transmitió a la quinta Raza. Cuna de la
cuarta Raza fue el vastísimo continente de la Atlántida. (Véase esta
palabra). La inmensa mayoría de los habitantes del globo pertenece
todavía a la cuarta Raza. Las siete subrazas de ésta son:
1) la Ramoahal
2) la Tlavatli
3) la Tolteca
4) la Turania
5) la Semítica
6) la Akkadiana
7) la Mongólica
Entre ellas merece mencionarse, por su alto
grado de civilización, la tolteca, que conocía a fondo la química, la
astronomía, la agricultura y la alquimía; estaba también muy versada en
la magia negra, gran parte de la cual tenía por instrumento el hábil
empleo de los "rayos obscuros" de la luna, o sean las emanaciones de la
porción obscura de este astro.
Quinta Raza (Aria)
- Es la actual raza blanca del globo. Se desarrolló
bajo la protección de Budha (Mercurio), pues su principal objetivo era
el desenvolvimiento de la mente, y a este fin, el planeta de la
sabiduría bañó con sus benéficos efluvios la cuna de la Raza. Hace ya un
millón de años el Manú Vaivasvata seleccionó de entre la subraza
semítica de la Raza atlántica las simientes de la quinta Raza-madre y
las condujo a la imperecedera Tierra sagrada.
Edad tras edad, fue
modelando el núleo de la humanidad futura. Allí se añadió el quinto
sentido (olfato) a los otro cuatro, quedando el hombre tal como es en el
estado presente. Allí el Manú congregó las más brillantes inteligencias
y los caracteres más puros para que renazcan en las formas que El
desarrolla. Una vez que hubo establecido el tipo de su Raza, la condujo
al Asia Central, en donde moró por largo tiempo, fijando allí la
residencia de la Raza cuyos brotes habían de ramificarse en diversas
direcciones.
Esta Raza tiene las siguientes subrazas:
1) la Aria
2) la
Ario-semítica
3) la Irania
4) la Céltica
5) la Teutónica
La sexta y
la séptima florecerán en el Norte y Sur de América.
Sexta Raza
- Estará caracterizada por su desarrollo espiritual, por la
adquisición del sexto sentido, o sea la clarividencia astral, y por sus
tendencias unitarias. Poblará el continente Zâha, cuya emersión inicial
ocurrirá en el punto donde actualmente se halla la América del Norte,
que con antelación habrá sido cuarteada por terremotos y fuegos
volcánicos.
Séptima Raza
- Se caracterizará por su completo desarrollo espiritual,
por la adquisición del séptimo sentido, o sea la clarividencia mental, y
por el pleno reconocimiento de la unidad. Florecerá en el séptimo
continente, llamado Pukchara, cuyo centro ha de estar en el punto en
donde se halla actualmente la América del Sur.
Al terminar la vida
geológica de este continente, sobrevendrá el fin de nuestro globo,
cayendo en apacible sueño después del larguísimo día de trabajo y
vigilia.
Root-race The main serial divisions of the human life-wave on any globe
of a planetary chain; for instance, the root-races on our globe D
include the third or Lemurian, the fourth or Atlantean, and the present
fifth. Each such root-race contains many and various races as the word
is commonly understood.
All the human beings alive today are part of the
fifth root-race. Each life-wave when it has completed its cycle of seven
root-races on one globe, transfers its life-energies to the next globe,
whereupon begins the same sequence of seven root-races on that next
globe. Thus each globe of a planetary chain has its seven root-races,
which together constitute one globe-round, the whole set of seven globe-rounds
completing one planetary round.
Root-race, First
of the fourth round on globe D of our earth, composed
of emanations of the lunar pitris produced by the processes of chhaya-birth
-- the ethereal lunar pitris emanated their own "shadows" or vehicles,
as colossal ovoid bodies of tenuous astral substance, to us translucent,
and having but rudiments or type of color. They were spiritual and
ethereal within, and more condensedly ethereal outwardly, as yet
possessing latent but not active intelligence, and therefore as yet
having no speech; composed of all the elements, but as yet having no
living intellectual fire manifest.
Their habitat was the "Imperishable
Sacred Land" around the region of the north pole, where they first
appeared in seven more or less distinct but overlapping localities.
Their method of reproduction in the earlier periods was by one form
melting into its progeny. Later the race reproduced itself by fission;
in all these cases there was no death to individuals, because the
individuals became their own descendants, as is exemplified in certain
elementary forms of life today. This race inhabited the globe when there
was more water than land on the earth, and its destruction was by fire.
However, even in this first root-race in which individualized
intelligence was not yet manifesting, because the forms were not yet
ready to carry this intelligence, there were nevertheless certain
representatives, the highest in the entire vast racial group, who were
already intelligent because of unfolded manasic attributes, and who
because of their more advanced state of evolution were enabled to build
up an intermediary psychological apparatus of etherealized or tenuous
character permitting the transmission of thought and intelligence from
the monad into the physical frame.
These intelligent entities, few as
compared with the vast numbers of the mass, were the first manasaputric
incarnations, and were therefore the highest and most evolved, and in
consequence the leaders and guardians of the unintelligent multitudes of
this race.
Root-race, Second
Like the first root-race of the present round on globe
D of the earth-chain, the second was astral, though somewhat more
concreted, physicalized, or materialized. The bodies were unlike what is
now regarded as human, bearing but vaguely the human outline of a
gelatinous, filamentoid, jelly-like nature, as yet without evolved bones,
organs, hair, or true skin. Reproduction was by budding, as occurs in
some lower organisms today.
About the middle of the race, these buds
became numerous and the process became modified to one analogous to the
casting off of spores or seeds, or to the exuding of drops of vital
sweat. These beings were mindless and unmoral, innocent, guided
unconsciously by their spiritual instincts, nevertheless largely under
the sway of lower rather than spiritual impulses, somewhat like the
animals of today. For as yet no intellectual fire from the manasaputras
(sons of mind) had been communicated to them, so that as yet there was
no working bridge of mentality between spirit and matter in them.
Root-race, Third
A period when human evolution passed through a stage
analogous to that of the third round, but qualified by the fact that it
belonged to the fourth round. The date of the beginning of this third
root-race is set at some 22 or 23 million years ago; and 18,000,000
years ago is given in theosophical writings as the date of the awakening
of mind and the separation of the sexes at or somewhat after the
midpoint of the third root-race. The latter date is collated, according
to the geology of Blavatsky's time, with the later Triassic and earlier
Jurassic periods.
The geographical area was the enormous continent known as Lemuria and
outlying islands, some even of semi-continental size; and, like the
other odd-numbered races, in this geographical distribution the water-area
predominated over the land-area, and its destruction finally came about
through fire.
The filamentoid and boneless structure of the semi-astral human bodies
at the end of the second root-race now thickened and condensed,
separating itself upon a rapidly developing skeletal form into nervous,
muscular, and other systems, combined with the appearance of definite
organs, with specific functions, thus constituting the first truly
physical human beings.
The mode of reproduction at the beginning of the
root-race was by the exudation from the surface of the body of vital "sweat"
or cells, but with the hardening and specialization of the body itself,
the production of the reproductive cells became localized in special
organs and the mode of generation became oviparous; later these human
eggs were no longer extruded as is the case with fowls today, but shrank
greatly in size and were developed and fertilized within the body: first
in a virginal manner, and then before true sex appeared there ensued a
fairly long period of androgynous reproduction in which androgynous
humans occasionally gave birth to individuals in whom one or the other
sex predominated; and these occasional appearances, as time passed,
became ever more frequent with the recession of androgyny, and the final
appearance of true sex as it is understood today.
This process extended
over hundreds of thousands, and even a number of millions, of years.
More important, however, than these biological facts was the awakening
of mind, of self-conscious thinking, inaugurated by the descent of the
manasaputras who not only at first projected sparks of their own full
self-consciousness into the innocent and unthinking humanity of that
early time, but who likewise so stimulated the appearance of mind
that the latter finally became common in differing degrees to the
entire human stock.
Root-race, Fourth
Often spoken of as the Atlantean, the name given in
theosophic writings to the land-system which it occupied; it followed
the third or so-called Lemurian race, not suddenly but with overlapping.
During the fourth root-race humanity reached its greatest phases of
materiality, especially since it occurred during the fourth round. The
fourth root-race was roughly contemporaneous with what towards the end
of the last century was called Tertiary times and came to an end in what
was then known as the middle Miocene. Its total duration was millions of
years.
The stature of the generality of the fourth root-race peoples was what
would be gigantic to us today, which is one source of the universal
tradition as to giants on the earth in far antiquity. Its earlier
language was the monosyllabic type of the latter half of the third root-race,
yet the characteristic speech during a large portion of its span was of
the agglutinative type, inflected speech coming with the fifth root-race.
The mode of reproduction was sexual, as it was in the latter half of the
third root-race.
After the fourth root-race had reached its zenith,
certain unevolved tribes committed miscegenation with the most evolved
of the then-existing simians, which were the descendants of a previous
miscegenation of representatives of the third root-race with true monkey
stocks. This second miscegenation produced a hybrid stock from which the
anthropoid apes are descended.
There was an enmity lasting for ages between the benevolent and the
selfish portions of the fourth root-race, which continued with the Aryan
adepts of the nascent fifth root-race and finally ended in the triumph
of the positive; but nevertheless the karma of Atlantean black magic
even yet blights our own fifth root-race, for the people of today were
imbodied as the humans of Atlantean times. Descendants of fourth root-race
humanity even now are among the inhabitants of the earth, together with
rapidly dying out remnants of the third root-race, and also various
mixtures of all these.
During the fourth root-race on this globe D of the fourth round,
evolution reached the middle of its course for this planetary manvantara,
and the door to entry into the state of spiritual and intellectual
evolution called the human kingdom was closed. All entities beneath the
humans (and probably higher anthropoids who were in existence before
that epoch) must await until the next succeeding round before even the
highest representatives of the beast kingdom can pass on to the human
stage.
All subhuman kingdoms will show a tendency as time goes on to die
out, because the monads of these kingdoms will go into latency for the
remainder of the planetary manvantara; their chance for evolution into
the human state will come again during the succeeding planetary
manvantara.
Root-race, Fifth
The human race at present on earth; the fifth root-race
on this globe D in the fourth round originated from the seed-race of the
middle fourth root-race and as the ages passed began to occupy the lands
which have since gradually taken form in our present continental
distribution. It is subdivided, like all other root-races, into seven subraces, and these again each into smaller divisions. The present
predominant sub-subrace is the fifth of its fourth primary subrace, only
a little beyond the point of greatest materiality of this root-race.
In one general sense, the fifth root-race actually comprises the many
and extremely varied stocks which exist on the earth today, simply
because they all live in the time period of the fifth root-race,
although many of the stocks are lineal descendants of the last subrace
of the fourth root-race more or less intermixed with what can be
described as more characteristic fifth root-race stock.
The Chinese, for
example, although descended from the latest subrace of the fourth root-race,
yet because of living in fifth root-race times are to be reckoned among
fifth root-race peoples, of which indeed they are among the very oldest.
The Semites in all their divisions are to be considered as an early
offshoot of the fifth root-race, and not as a race essentially or
radically distinct.
The fifth root-race is sometimes spoken of as the Aryan race, merely
because the Aryans of India are an existing example of the earliest
branches of the fifth, though the term Aryan is not in accordance with
the various ethnological and linguistic distinction to which that name
is commonly applied. The characteristic language of this root-race is
inflectional, such as Sanskrit or Greek. The symbol of the fifth or
Aryan race is "that which is its most sacred symbol to this day, the
bull (and the cow)" (SD 2:533).
Root-race, Sixth
The root-race which will succeed the present fifth root-race,
sometimes called the Aryan race in theosophical literature because the
Aryan Hindus were a part of the original first subrace of the fifth root-race.
Care should be taken not to confuse the sixth root-race with the sixth
subrace of the fifth root-race which was stated by Blavatsky to be in
process of forming in America as seeds -- the earliest pioneers,
although already beginning to appear, will not be numerous for several
thousand years.
The preparation for the sixth root-race will take place
during the sixth and seventh subraces of the fifth root-race in the
Americas. When the time arrives, this future sixth root-race will be
predominant on the earth, new lands will have appeared, and many of the
present lands will be submerged. The surface of the globe will, in time
of course, be entirely changed, and there will then be more land than
water (as also was the case during the fourth root-race).
During the sixth root-race, humanity will not be gigantic in size (as
were the fourth and third root-races), for spirituality will be on the
ascendancy and materiality decreasing, so that at the end of the sixth
root-race the development of spirituality will be parallel to what it
was at the beginning of the second root-race plus, however, the added
evolutionary experience gained during the preceding root-races.
The
characteristics of sex will gradually disappear, and humanity will be
slowly once again becoming androgynous. Offspring will be born in a
manner generally similar to that which prevailed during the second and
early third root-race periods: toward the close of the sixth, mankind
will begin to manifest the first appearances of reproduction by kriyasakti (propagation by means of will and imagination).
Toward the
close of the sixth root-race, humanity will be showing a steadily
increasing tendency to evolve out of fleshly into more ethereal physical
vehicles. These various changes are presentments of what will in the due
course be established in relative perfection during the sixth round --
coming events cast their shadows before. Indeed the sixth root-race will
be as compared with our own fifth far in advance, spiritually,
intellectually, psychically, and even physically; and the attainment by
mankind of adeptship or mahatmaship will be notably more easy than is
the case at present.
With the advent of each root-race a new cosmic element comes into
proportionate manifestation, and a new physical sense apparatus appears:
thus humanity in the sixth root-race will develop what is meant by a
sixth sense. The fifth cosmic element (often named aether or
akasa-tattva) will reach a development proportionate to the evolution of
mankind during the fifth root-race in this fourth round; and after the
same manner, a sixth cosmic element will make its appearance during the
course of human evolution during the sixth root-race. Furthermore, just
as a manushya-buddha comes to lead mankind in each root-race, so will
one appear during the sixth root-race of the future.
Root-race, Seventh
The seventh and last root-race of any round on any
globe of a planetary chain. Reference is nearly always to the seventh
root-race of the fourth round on globe D of the earth-chain. It
characteristics are analogous on a smaller scale to those of the seventh
round, modified by the fact that it belongs to the fourth round. There
is a return to conditions of purity which prevailed at the beginning of
the round; but this return does not mean a going backward but an
emanative evolutionary unfolding to the point where the cyclic motion
brings all things back to the same plane, but on a higher subdivision.
The great adepts and initiates -- referring here specifically to the
seventh root-race on globe D of the fourth round -- will once more
produce mind-born sons immaculately, and there will be a race of buddhas, sons of god, the purity of the krita-age being reestablished
(SD 2:274, 483). The invisible north polar continent will once more
become visible, and the bodhisattva Maitreya will appear (SD 1:328,
470). A seventh element will appear as a presentment, not however to be
fully manifested until the seventh round. In this race some of the
greatest adepts will return.
