As for volcanic eruptions, they try to understand them as they try to understand everything else, in a purely mechanical way, depicting the center of the Earth as a fiery furnace and concluding that the eruptions are caused by the accidental admission of water and in other similar ways. In a certain sense, their theories have some foundation, but in this case they are, as always, neglecting the spiritual causes which to the occultist appear to be the true ones.
To him, the world is far from being "dead. The different kinds of quartz, the metals, the disposition of the various strata--all have a much higher significance than the materialistic investigator has ever been able to grasp. To the occult scientists, the way in which these materials are arranged is full of meaning. On this subject, as on every other, occult science stands in the same relation to modern science as physiology does to anatomy. Anatomy states with minute detail the exact position of every bone, muscle, ligament, nerve, etc.
Physiology, on the other hand, not only states the position and structure of every part of the body, but also tells their use in the body. To know the different strata of the Earth and the relative positions of the planets in the sky without having also a knowledge of their use and meaning in the life and purpose of the Cosmos, is as useless as to know merely the positions of bones, nerves, etc.
The Number of the Beast To the trained clairvoyant sight, of the Initiate of the various degrees of the Mysteries, the Earth appears built in strata, something like an onion, one layer or stratum outside another.
There are nine such strata and the central core, making ten in all. These strata are revealed to the Initiate gradually. One stratum becomes accessible to him at each Initiation, so that at the end of the nine lesser Initiations he is master of all the layers, but has not yet access to the secrets of the core. In ancient parlance these nine steps are called the "lesser Mysteries. He is shown how the present ninefold constitution the threefold body, the threefold soul, and the threefold spirit was brought into existence; how the great creative Hierarchies worked on the virgin spirit, awakening in it the Ego, helping it to form the body; and also the work he himself has done, to extract from the threefold body as much of the threefold soul as he now possesses.
One step at a time is he led through the nine steps of the lesser mysteries, the nine strata. This number nine is the root number of our present stage of evolution. It bears a significance in our system that no other number does. It is the number of Adam, the life which commenced its evolution as Man, which reached the human stage during the Earth Period. In the Hebrew, as in the Greek, there are no numerals, but each letter has a numerical value.
If we turn from the Book of Genesis, which deals with the creation of man in the hoary past, to the Book of Revelation, which deals with his future attainment, we find that the number of the beast which hinders is Going further, to the point where the number of those who are to be saved is stated, we find it to be , The consciousness of the mineral and the plant is really unconsciousness.
The first glimmering dawn of consciousness begins with the animal kingdom. We have seen also that according to the most modern classification, there are thirteen steps in the animal kingdom: three classes of Radiates; three classes of Mollusks; three classes of Articulates; and four classes of Vertebrates.
In olden times Masonry was a system of Initiation into the lesser Mysteries which, as we have seen, have 9 degrees, but the Initiates often wrote it as Similarly we read of the l8th degree of the Rosicrucians, which was only a "blind" for the uninitiated, because there are never more than 9 degrees in any lesser Mystery, and the Masons of today have but very little of the occult ritual left in their degrees.
We have also the nine months of gestation, during which the body is built up to its present efficiency; and there are in the body nine perforations-two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, one mouth, and the two lower orifices. When the advancing man has passed through the nine lesser Initiations, gaining thereby entrance to all the layers of the Earth, entrance into the core is yet to be won.
That is opened to him by the first of the four Great Initiation, in which he learns to know the mystery of the mind, that part of his being begun on Earth. When he is ready for the first Great Initiation he has developed his mind to the degree all men are destined to attain to at the end of the Earth Period. In that Initiation he is given the key to the next stage, and all work done by him after that will be such as humanity in general will do in the Jupiter Period, and does not concern us at present.
After his first Great Initiation, he is an Adept. The second, third and fourth Initiations pertain to the stages of development to be arrived at by ordinary humanity in the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Periods.
These thirteen Initiations are symbolically represented in the Christ and His twelve Apostles. Judas Iscariot is the traitorous propensities of the lower nature of the neophyte. In different schools of occult science the rites of Initiation vary, also their statement of the number of Initiations, but that is merely a matter of classification.
It will be observed that such vague descriptions as can be given become more vague as one proceeds higher and higher. Where seven or more degrees are spoken of, almost nothing is said of the sixth Initiation, and nothing whatever of the ones beyond. That is because of another division--the six steps of "Preparation. Then there must always be three more, if the philosophy of the school or society goes so far. The writer, however, knows of none but the Rosicrucians who have anything to say of the three Periods which preceded the Earth Period, save the bare statement that there were such Periods.
They are not brought very definitely into relationship with our present phase of existence, however. Likewise, other occult teachings simply state that there will be three more schemes of evolution, but no particulars are given. Of course, under those circumstances, the three last Initiations are not mentioned. Diagram l8 will give an idea of the arrangement of the Earth's strata, the central core being omitted to indicate more clearly the lemniscate formation of the currents in the ninth stratum.
In the diagram the strata are represented as being of equal thickness, thought in reality some are much thinner than other. Beginning at the outside, they appear in the following order: The Mineral Earth: This is the stony crust of the Earth, with which Geology deals as far as it is able to penetrate.
The Fluid Stratum: The matter of this stratum is more fluid than that of the outside crust, yet it is not watery, but rather more like a thick paste. It has the quality of expansion, like that of an exceedingly explosive gas, and is kept in place only by the enormous pressure of the outer crust.
Were that removed, the whole of the fluid stratum would disappear in space with a tremendous explosion. Vapor Stratum: In the first and second strata there is really no conscious life. But in this stratum there is an even-flowing and pulsating life, as in the Desire World surrounding and inter-penetrating our Earth. Water Stratum: In this stratum are the germinal possibilities of all that exists upon the surface of the Earth.
Here are the archetypal forces which are back of the group spirits; also the archetypal forces of the minerals, for this is the direct physical expression of the Region of Concrete Thought.
Seed Stratum: Material scientists have been baffled in their efforts to discover the origin of life, how the first living things came forth from previously dead matter. Before man's enlightenment by the Lucifer Spirits he had not known sickness, pain nor death. All of these resulted from the unwise use of the propagative faculty and its abuse for the gratification of the senses.
Animals in their wild state are exempt from sickness and pain, because their propagation is carried on under the care and direction of the wise group spirit at only those times of the year which are propitious to that process. The sex-function is designed solely for the perpetuation of the species and under no circumstances for the gratification of sexual desire.
Had man remained a God-guided automaton, he would have known no sickness, pain, no death unto this day; but he would also have lacked the brain-consciousness and independence which resulted from his enlightenment by the Lucifer Spirits, the "light-givers," who opened the eyes of his understanding and taught him to use his then dim vision to gain knowledge of the Physical World which he was destined to conquer.
From that time there have been two forces working in man. One force is that of the Angels, who build new beings in the womb by means of Love which is turned downward for procreation; they are therefore the perpetuators of the race. The other force is that of the Lucifers, who are the instigators of all mental activity, by means of the other part of the sex-force, which is carried upward for work in the brain.
The Lucifers are also called "serpents" and are variously represented in different mythologies. More will be said about them when we come to the analysis of Genesis. For the present enough has been said to warrant us in pursuing the main line of investigation, which leads us to follow the progress of man's evolution still further, through the Atlantean and Aryan Epochs, down to the present day.
What has been said about the enlightenment of the Lemurians applies to only a minor portion of those who lived in the latter part of that Epoch, and who became the Seed for the Seven Atlantean Races. The greater part of the Lemurians were animal-like and the forms inhabited by them have degenerated into the savages and anthropoids of the present day. The student is requested to note carefully that it was the forms which degenerated.
There is a very important distinction to be kept in mind between the bodies or forms of a race, and the Egos or life which is reborn in those race-bodies. When a race is born, the forms are ensouled by a certain group of spirits and have inherent capability of evolving to a certain stage of completion and no further. There can be no standing still in nature, therefore when the limit of attainment has been reached the bodies or forms of that race begin to degenerate, sinking lower and lower until at last the race dies out.
The reason is not far to seek. New race bodies are particularly flexible and plastic, affording great scope for the Egos who are reborn in them to improve these vehicles and progress thereby. The most advanced Egos are brought to birth in such bodies and improve them to the best of their ability. These Egos, however, are only apprentices as yet, and they cause the bodies to gradually crystallize and harden until the limit of improvement of that particular kind of body has been reached.
Then forms for another new race are created, to afford the advancing Egos further scope for more extended experience and greater development. They discard the old race bodies for the new, their discarded bodies becoming the habitations for less advanced Egos who, in their turn, use them as stepping-stones on the path of progress. Thus the old race bodies are used by Egos of increasing inferiority , gradually degenerating until at last there are no Egos low enough to profit by rebirth in such bodies.
The women then become sterile and the race- forms die. We may easily trace this process by certain examples. The Teutonic-Anglo-Saxon race particularly the American branch of it has a softer, more flexible body and a more high-strung nervous system than any other race on earth at the present time. The Indian and Negro have much harder bodies and, because of the duller nervous system, are much less sensitive to lacerations, An Indian will continue to fight after receiving wounds the shock of which would prostrate or kill a white man, whereas the Indian will quickly recover.
The Australian aborigines or Bushmen furnish an example of a race dying out on account of sterility, notwithstanding all that the British government is doing to perpetuate them.
It has been said by white men against the white race, that wherever it goes the other races dies out. The whites have been guilty of fearful oppression against those other races, having in many cases massacred multitudes of the defenseless and unsuspecting natives--as witness the conduct of the Spaniards towards the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, to specify but one of many instances.
The obligations resulting from such betrayal of confidence and abuse of superior intellect will be paid--yea, the last, least iota! It is equally true, however, that even had the whites not massacred, starved, enslaved, expatriated and otherwise maltreated those older races, the latter would nevertheless have died out just as surely, though more slowly, because such is the Law of Evolution--the Order of Nature.
At some future time the white race-bodies when they become inhabited by the Egos who are now embodied in red, black, yellow or brown skins, will have degenerated so far that they also will disappear, to give place to other and better vehicles.
Science speaks only of evolution. It fails to consider the lines of degeneration which are slowly but surely destroying such bodies as have crystallized beyond possibility of improvement. The Atlantean Epoch Volcanic cataclysms destroyed the greater part of the Lemurian continent and in its stead rose the Atlantean continent, where the Atlantic Ocean now is. Material scientists, impelled by the story of Plato to undertake researched regarding Atlantis, have demonstrated that there is ample foundation for the story that such a continent did exist.
Occult scientists know that it existed and they also know that the conditions there were such as shall now be described. Ancient Atlantis differed from our present world in many ways, but the greatest difference was in the constitution of the atmosphere and the water of that Epoch. From the southern part of the planet came the hot, fiery breath of the volcanoes which were still abundantly active.
From the north swept down the icy blasts of the Polar region. The continent of Atlantis was the meeting place of those two currents, consequently its atmosphere was always filled with a thick and murky fog. The water was not so dense as now, but contained a greater proportion of air. Much water was also held in suspension in the heavy, foggy Atlantean atmosphere. Through this atmosphere the Sun never clearly shone. It appeared to be surrounded by an aura of light-mist, as do street-lamps when seen through a dense fog.
It was then possible to see only a few feet in any direction and the outlines of all objects not close at hand appeared dim, hazy and uncertain. Man was guided more by internal perception than by external vision. Not only the country, but also the man of that time was very different from anything existent on earth at the present time. He had a head, but scarcely any forehead; his brain had no frontal development; the head sloped almost abruptly back from a point just above the eyes.
As compared with our present humanity; he was a giant; his arms and legs were much longer, in proportion to this body, than ours. Instead of walking, he progressed by a series of flying leaps, not unlike those of the kangaroo. He had small blinking eyes and his hair was round in section. The latter peculiarity, if no other, distinguishes the descendants of the Atlantean races who remain with us at the present day. Their hair was straight, glossy, black and round in section. That of the Aryan, thought it may differ in color, is always oval in section.
The ears of the Atlantean sat much further back upon the head than do those of the Aryan. The higher vehicles of the early Atlanteans were not drawn into a concentric position in relation to the dense body, as are ours. The spirit was not quite an in dwelling spirit; it was partially outside, therefore could not control its vehicles with as great facility as though it dwelt entirely inside. The head of the vital body was outside of and held a position far above the physical head.
There is a point between the eyebrows and about half an inch below the surface of the skin, which has a corresponding point in the vital body. This point is not the pituitary body, which lies much deeper in the head of the dense body. It might be called "the root of the nose. This is the seat of the indwelling spirit in the man--the Holy of Holies in the temple of the human body, barred to all but that indwelling human Ego whose home it is. The trained clairvoyant can see with more or less distinctness, according to his capacity and training, all the different bodies which form the aura of man.
This spot alone is hidden from him. This is the "Isis" whose veil none may lift. Not even the highest evolved being on earth is capable of unveiling the Ego of the humblest and least developed creature.
That, and that alone upon earth, is so sacred that it is absolutely safe from intrusion. These two points just spoken of--the one in the dense body and its counterpart in the vital body--were far apart in the men of the early Atlanteans days, as they are in the animals of our day. The head of the horse's vital body is far outside the head of its dense body. The two points are closer together in the dog than in any other animal except, perhaps, the elephant.
When they come into correspondence we have an animal prodigy, able to count, spell, etc. On account of the distance between these two points, the Atlantean's power of perception or vision was much keener in the inner Worlds than in the dense Physical World, obscured by its atmosphere of thick, heavy fog.
In the fullness of time, however, the atmosphere slowly became clearer; at the same time, the point spoken of in the vital body came closer and closer to the corresponding point in the dense body. As the two approached each other, man gradually lost touch with the inner Worlds. They became dimmer as the dense Physical World became clearer in outline. Finally, in the last third of the Atlantean Epoch, the point in the vital body was united to the corresponding point in the dense body.
Not until then did man become fully awake in the dense Physical World; but at the same time that full sight and perception in the Physical World were gained, the capability of perceiving the inner Worlds were gradually lost to most of the people. In an earlier time the Atlantean did not clearly perceive the outline of an object or a person, but he saw the soul and at once knew its attributes, whether they were beneficial to him or otherwise.
He knew whether the man or animal he was regarding was kindly or inimically disposed toward him. He was accurately taught by spiritual perception how to deal with others and how to escape harm.
Therefore when the Spiritual World gradually faded from his consciousness, great was his sorrow at the loss. The Rmoahals were the first of the Atlantean Races. They had but little memory and that little was chiefly connected with sensation. They remembered colors and tomes, and thus to some extend they evolved Feeling. The Lemurian had entirely lacked Feeling, in the finer signification of the word. He had the sense of touch, could feel the physical sensations of pain, ease and comfort, but not the mental and spiritual ones of joy, sorrow, sympathy and antipathy.
With memory came to the Atlanteans the rudiments of a language. They evolved words and no longer made use of mere sounds, as did the Lemurians. The Rmoahals began to give names to things. They were yet a spiritual race and, their soul-powers being like the forces of nature, they not only named the objects around them, but in their words was power over the things they named.
Like the last of the Lemurians, their Feelings as spirits inspired them, and no harm was ever done to one another. To them the language was holy, as the highest direct expression of the spirit. The power was never abused or degraded by gossip or small talk. By the use of definite language the soul in this race first became able to contact the soul of things in the outside world. The Tlavatlis were the second Atlantean Race. Already they began to feel their worth as separate human beings.
They became ambitious, they demanded that their works be remembered. Memory became a factor in the life of the community. The remembrance of the deeds done by certain ones would cause a group of people to choose as their leader one who had done great deeds. This was the germ of Royalty. This remembrance of the meritorious deeds of great men was carried even beyond the time when such leaders died.
Mankind began to honor the memory of ancestors and to worship them and others who had shown great merit. That was the beginning of a form of worship which is practiced to this day by some Asiatics. The Toltecs were the third Atlantean Race. They carried still further the ideas of their predecessors, inaugurating Monarchy and Hereditary Succession. The Toltecs originated the custom of honoring men for the deeds done by their ancestors, but there was then a very good reason for so doing.
Because of the peculiar training at that time, the father had the power to bestow his qualities upon his son in a way impossible to mankind at the present time. The education consisted of calling up before the soul of the child pictures of the different phases of life.
The consciousness of the early Atlantean was, as yet, principally an internal picture-consciousness. The power of the educator to call up these pictures before the soul of the child was the determining factor upon which depended the soul qualities that would be possessed by the grown man. The instinct and not the reason was appealed to and aroused and by this method of education the son, in the great majority of cases, readily absorbed the qualities of the father.
It is thus evident that there was at that time good reason for bestowing honor upon the descendants of great men, because the son almost always inherited most of his father's good qualities. Unfortunately, that is not the case in our time, although we still follow the same practices of honoring the sons of great men; but we have no reason whatever for doing so.
Among the Toltecs, experience came to be highly valued. The man who had gained the most varied experience was the most honored and sought. Memory was in them so great and accurate that our present memory is nothing in comparison.
In an emergency, a Toltec of wide practical experience would be very likely to remember similar cases in the past, and suggest what action should be taken. Thus be became a valuable adviser to the community when a situation developed which none of the members had previously encountered and they were unable to think or reason from analogy as to how to deal promptly with the emergency.
When such an individual was not available, they were compelled to experiment in order to find what was best to do. In the middle third of Atlantis we find the beginning of separate nations. Groups of people who discovered in one another similar tastes and habits would leave their old homes and found a new colony.
They remembered old customs and followed them in their new homes as far as they suited, forming new ones to meet their own particular ideas and necessities.
The Leaders of mankind initiated great Kings at that time to rule the people, over whom they were given great power. The masses honored these kings with all the reverence due to those who were thus truly Kings "by the grace of God.
They forgot that it had been put into their hands by the grace of God, as a sacred trust; that they were made Kings for the purpose of dealing justly by and helping the people. They began to use their power corruptly, for selfish ends and personal aggrandizement instead of for the common good, arrogating themselves privileges and authorities never intended for them. Ambition and selfishness ruled then and they abused their high, divinely derived powers, for purposes of oppression and revenge.
This was true, not only of the Kings, but also of the nobles and the higher classes, and when one considers the power possessed by them over their fellow beings of the less developed classes, it is easy to understand that its misuse would bring about terrible conditions.
The Original Turanians were the fourth Atlantean Race. They were especially vile in their abominable selfishness. They erected temples where the Kings were worshiped as gods, and caused the extreme oppression of the helpless lower classes. Black magic of the worst and most nauseating kind flourished and all their efforts were directed towards the gratification of vanity and external display. The Original Semites were the fifth and most important of the seven Atlantean Races, because in them we find the first germ of the corrective quality of Thought.
Therefore the Original Semitic Race become the "seed race" for the seven races of the present Aryan Epoch. In the Polarian Epoch man acquired a dense body as an instrument of action. In the Hyperborean Epoch the vital body was added to give power of motion necessary to action. In the Lemurian Epoch the desire body furnished incentive to action. The mind was given to man in the Atlantean Epoch to give purpose to action, but as the Ego was exceedingly weak and the desire nature strong, the nascent mind coalesced with the desire body, the faculty of Cunning resulted and was the cause of all the wickedness of the middle third of the Atlantean Epoch.
In the Aryan Epoch Thought and Reason were to be evolved by the work of the Ego in the mind to conduct Desire into channel leading to the attainment of spiritual perfection, which is the Goal of Evolution.
This faculty of Thought and of forming Ideas was gained by man at the expense of loss of control over the vital forces--i. With Thought and Mind man can at present exercise power over the chemicals and minerals only, for his mind is now in the first of mineral stage of its evolution, as was his dense body in the Saturn Period.
He can exercise no power over plant or animal life. Wood and various vegetable substances, together with different parts of the animals, are used by man in his industries. These substances are all in the final analysis chemical matter ensouled by mineral life, of which the bodies in all the kingdoms are composed, as previously explained. Over all these varieties of chemical mineral combinations man at his present stage may have dominion, but until he has reached the Jupiter Period, that dominion will not be extended so that he can work with life.
In that Period, however, he will have the power to work with plant life as the Angels do at present in the Earth Period. Material scientist have labored for many years in an endeavor to "create" life, but they will not succeed until they have learned that they must approach the laboratory table with the deepest reverence, as they would draw near to the altar in a Temple--with purity of heart and with holy hands, devoid of greed and selfish ambition.
Such is the wise decision of the Elder Brothers, who guard this and all the deep secrets of Nature until man shall be fit to use them for the uplifting of the race--for the glory of God and not for personal profit or self-aggrandizement. It was, however, this very loss of power over the vital forces which the Atlanteans suffered that made it possible for man to evolve further.
After that, no matter how great his selfishness became, it could not prove absolutely destructive of himself and of Nature, as would have been the case had the growing selfishness been accompanied by the great power possessed by man in his innocent former state. Thought that works only in man is powerless to command Nature and can never endanger humanity, as would be possible were Nature's forces under man's control.
The Original Semites regulated their desires to some extent by the mind, and instead of mere desires, came cunning and craftiness--the means by which those people sought to attain their selfish ends. Though they were a very turbulent people, they learned to curb their passions to a great extend and accomplish their purposes by the use of cunning, as being more subtle and potent than mere brute strength.
They were the first to discover that "brain" is superior to "brawn. The combination of events gave man the ability to see objects clearly with sharp, well-defined contours; but it also resulted in loss of sight pertaining to the inner Worlds. Thus we see, and it may be well to definitely state it as a law: No progress is ever made that is not gained at the cost of some previously possessed faculty, which is later regained in a higher form.
Man built the brain at the expense of the temporary loss of the power to bring forth offspring from himself alone. In order to get the instrument wherewith to guide his dense body, be became subject to all the difficulty, sorrow and pain which is involved in the co-operation necessary to the perpetuation of the race; he obtained his reasoning power at the cost of the temporary loss of his spiritual insight.
While reason benefited him in many ways, it shut from his vision the soul of things which had previously spoken to him, and the gaining of the intellect which is now man's most precious possession was at first but sadly contemplated by the Atlantean, who mourned the loss of spiritual sight and power which marked its acquisition. The exchange of spiritual powers for physical faculties was necessary, however, in order that man might be able to function, independent of outside guidance, in the Physical World which he must conquer.
In time his higher powers will be regained when, by means of his experiences in his journey through the denser Physical World, he has learned to use them properly.
When he possessed them, he had no knowledge of their proper use, and they were too precious and too dangerous to be used as toys, with which to experiment. Under the guidance of a great Entity, the Original Semitic Race was led eastward from the continent of Atlantis, over Europe, to the great waste in Central Asia which is known as the Gobi Desert.
There it prepared them to be the seed of the seven Races of the Aryan Epoch, imbuing them potentially with the qualities to be evolved by their descendants. During all the previous ages--from the commencement of the Saturn Period, through the Sun and Moon Periods, and in the three and one-half Revolutions of the Earth Period the Polarian, Hyperborean, Lemurian, and earlier part of the Atlantean Epochs --man had been led and guided by higher Beings, without the slightest choice.
In those days he was unable to guide himself, not yet having evolved a mind of his own; but at last the time had come when it was necessary for his further development that he should begin to guide himself.
He must learn independence and assume responsibility for his own actions. Hitherto he had been compelled to obey the commands of his Ruler; now his thoughts were to be turned from the visible Leaders, the Lords from Venus, whom he worshiped as messengers from the gods--to the idea of the true God, the invisible Creator of the System. Man was to learn to worship and obey the commands of a God he could not see.
Their Leader therefore called the people together and delivered a soul-stirring oration, which might be thus expressed: Hitherto, you have seen Those who led you, but there are Leaders of varying grades of splendor, higher than They, Whom you have not seen, Who guided your every tottering step in the evolution of consciousness. Exalted above all these glorious Beings stands the invisible God Who has created the heaven, and the earth upon which you dwell.
He has willed to give you dominion over all this land, that you may be fruitful and multiply in it. This invisible God only must you worship, but you must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, and not make any graven image of Him, nor use any likeness to picture Him to yourselves, because He is everywhere present, and is beyond any comparison or similitude.
If you follow His precepts, He will bless you abundantly in all good. If you stray from His ways, evil will follow. The choice is yours. The Pioneers of the new Life Wave, who had the same vehicles as class 3, but belong to a different scheme of evolution from ours. The Stragglers of the new Life Wave, who had only the germ for the dense body. The New Life Wave, which entered upon its evolution at the beginning of the Moon Period and is the life that ensouls our plants of the present day.
It is necessary to remember that Nature hastens slowly. She makes no sudden changes in forms. To her, time is nothing; the attainment of perfection is everything. A mineral does not change to a plant at one bound, but by gradual, almost imperceptible degrees.
A plant does not become an animal in a night. It requires millions of years to bring about the change. Thus at all times there are all stages and gradations to be found in nature. The Ladder of Being stretches without break from protoplasm to God. Therefore we have to deal, not with six different kingdoms corresponding to the above six classes which entered the arena of evolution at the beginning of the Moon Period, but with three kingdoms only--mineral, plant and animal.
The lowest class in the Moon Period composed the new life stream which there commenced its evolution. It formed the hardest mineral part, yet it must be borne in mind that it was by no means as hard as the mineral of the present time, but only about as dense as our wood.
This statement does not contradict former ones which described the Moon as watery, nor does it conflict with diagram 8 , showing the densest Globe in the Moon Period as located in the Etheric Region, which is etheric. As before stated, the fact that the path of evolution is spiral prevents any condition ever being duplicated.
There are similarities, but never reproductions of identical conditions. It is not always possible to describe conditions in exact terms. The best available term is used to convey an idea of the conditions existing at the time under consideration. Class 5 in our list was nearly mineral, yet on account of having passed through and beyond the mineral condition during the Sun Period, it had some plant characteristics. Class 4 was almost plant and did evolve to a plant before the close of the Mood Period.
It was, however, more nearly allied to the mineral kingdom that the next two classes, which formed the higher kingdom. We may therefore group classes 4 and 5 together, as forming a sort of half step, a "mineral-plant" kingdom, which composed the surface of the ancient planet of the Moon Period.
It was something like our present peat, which is also a state between the mineral and the plant. It was soggy and wet, consistent with the statement that the Moon Period was watery. Thus the fourth, fifth and sixth classes composed the different gradations of the mineral kingdom in the Moon Period--the highest being nearly plant and the lowest the hardest mineral substance of that time. Classes 2 and 3 formed the plant kingdom, though they were both really more than plants, yet were not quite animal.
They grew in the mineral-plant soil; they were stationary like plants; yet they could not have grown in a purely mineral soil, as our plants do now. Good examples of what they were like may be found in our parasitic plants, which cannot grow in a purely mineral soil, but seek the food already specialized by the real plant or tree.
Class 1 was composed of the pioneers of the life wave of virgin spirits. In the Moon Period they were going through a sort of animal-like existence. Yet they were like the animals of our time only in so far as they had the same vehicles and were under the control of a group-spirit, which included the whole human family.
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