Divine Kings

The Divine Kings, also referred to as Divine Rulers, Divine instructors, or Divine Dynasties, are Manasaputras and Adepts that incarnate at the beginning of each Root-Race to teach and guide the new humanity. According to H. P. Blavatsky there are seven dynasties of them. To them belonged all great World-reformers and many of the mythical gods and heroes of different cultures.

General description

In her writings H. P. Blavatsky elaborated on the idea held in many ancient traditions that early humanity was guided by divine Kings or Rulers of great wisdom, "compared with which our little modern science stands less chance than elementary arithmetic with geometry." They are frequently said to be seven, although Blavatsky refers to them as being seven great Dynasties. The higher of these Kings were celestial beings from previous evolutionary cycles who incarnated in human bodies:

The DIVINE DYNASTIES [were] kings and rulers who had of mortal man only his physical appearance as it was then, but who were Beings from spheres higher and more celestial than our own sphere will be, long Manvantaras hence.

These "benefactors of men" appear at the beginning of each Root-Race as teacher and rulers to guide humanity. References to many of them have come down to us from ancient traditions under mythical names:

They were also, in the beginning of times, the rulers of mankind. When incarnated as Kings of the “divine Dynasties,” they gave the first impulse to civilizations, and directed the mind with which they had endued men to the invention and perfection of all the arts and sciences. To them . . . is ascribed the invention of letters (the Devanagari or the alphabet and language of the gods), of laws and legislature; of architecture, as of the various modes of magic, so-called; and of the medical use of plants. Hermes, Orpheus, Cadmus, Asclepius, all those demi-gods and heroes, to whom is ascribed the revelation of sciences to men . . . are all generic names.

The Kabirim, “the mighty ones,” are identical with our primeval Dhyan-Chohans, with the corporeal and the incorporeal Pitris, and with all the rulers and instructors of the primeval races, which are referred to as the Gods and Kings of the divine Dynasties.

From Manu, Thot-Hermes, Oannes-Dagon, and Edris-Enoch, down to Plato and Panadores, all tell us . . . of the seven primitive and dual gods who descend from their celestial abode and reign on Earth, teaching mankind Astronomy, Architecture, and all the other sciences that have come down to us. These Beings appear first as “gods” and Creators; then they merge in nascent man, to finally emerge as “divine-Kings and Rulers.” But this fact has been gradually forgotten.

These Kings belong to a hierarchy of celestial beings, the highest rung representing an emanation from the Logos and the lowest enlightened human being:

There never yet was a great World-reformer, whose name has passed into our generation, who (a) was not a direct emanation of the LOGOS (under whatever name known to us), i.e., an essential incarnation of one of the “seven,” of the “divine Spirit who is sevenfold”; and (b) who had not appeared before, during the past Cycles. . . . The esoteric doctrine explains . . . that each of these (as many others) had first appeared on earth as one of the seven powers of the LOGOS, individualized as a God or “Angel” (messenger); then, mixed with matter, they had re-appeared in turn as great sages and instructors who “taught the Fifth Race,” after having instructed the two preceding races, had ruled during the Divine Dynasties, and had finally sacrificed themselves, to be reborn under various circumstances for the good of mankind, and for its salvation at certain critical periods; until in their last incarnations they had become truly only “the parts of a part” on earth, though de facto the One Supreme in Nature.

All the gods of Olympus, as well as those of the Hindu Pantheon and the Rishis, were the septiform personations (1) of the noumena of the intelligent Powers of nature; (2) of Cosmic Forces; (3) of celestial bodies; (4) of gods or Dhyan Chohans; (5) of psychic and spiritual powers; (6) of divine kings on earth (or the incarnations of the gods); and (7) of terrestrial heroes or men. The knowledge how to discern among these seven forms the one that is meant, belonged at all times to the Initiates, whose earliest predecessors had created this symbolical and allegorical system.

Third Root-Race

The Egyptians and the Chaldeans referred the birth of their divine Dynasties to that period when creative Earth was in her last final throes, in giving birth to her prehistoric mountain ranges, which have since disappeared, her seas and her continents.

VII. 7. Then the builders, having donned their first clothing, descend on radiant earth, and reign over men — who are themselves.

The “Watchers” reign over man during the whole period of Satya Yuga and the smaller subsequent yugas, down to the beginning of the Third Root Race; after which it is the Patriarchs, Heroes, and the Manes (see Egyptian Dynasties enumerated by the priests to Solon), the incarnated Dhyanis of a lower order, up to King Menes and the human kings of other nations; all were recorded carefully. . . . since traditions and even Chronicles of such dynasties of divine Kings—of gods reigning over men followed by dynasties of Heroes or Giants—exist in the annals of every nation, it is difficult to understand how all the peoples under the sun, some of whom are separated by vast oceans and belong to different hemispheres, such as the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans; as well as the Chaldeans, could have worked out the same “fairy tales” in the same order of events. However, as the Secret Doctrine teaches history—which, for being esoteric and traditional, is none the less more reliable than profane history—we are as entitled to our beliefs as anyone else, whether religionist or sceptic. And that Doctrine says that the Dhyani-Buddhas of the two higher groups, namely, the “Watchers” or the “Architects,” furnished the many and various races with divine kings and leaders. It is the latter who taught humanity their arts and sciences, and the former who revealed to the incarnated Monads that had just shaken off their vehicles of the lower Kingdoms—and who had, therefore, lost every recollection of their divine origin—the great spiritual truths of the transcendental worlds.

According to Blavatsky, under the guidance of their divine instructors, the last two Sub-Races of the Third Race built cities and sow far and wide the first seeds of civilization.

During the early geological periods [there were] men and civilized nations, not Palæolithic savages only; who, under the guidance of their divine Rulers, built large cities, cultivated arts and sciences, and knew astronomy, architecture and mathematics to perfection. This primeval civilization did not, as one may think, immediately follow their physiological transformation. Between the final evolution and the first city built, many hundred thousands of years had passed.

It is with the advent of the divine Dynasties that the first civilizations were started. And while, in some regions of the Earth, a portion of mankind preferred leading a nomadic and patriarchal life, and in others savage man was hardly learning to build a fire and to protect himself against the Elements, his brothers—more favoured than he by their Karma, and helped by the divine intelligence which informed them—built cities, and cultivated arts and sciences.

Blavatsky quotes Book VI of the Commentaries:

After (the separation) the Satya (Yuga) was at an end. The eternal spring became constant change and seasons succeeded. Cold forced men to build shelters and devise clothing. Then man appealed to the superior Fathers (the higher gods or angels). The Nirmânakaya of the Nâgas, the wise Serpents and Dragons of Light came, and the precursors of the Enlightened (Buddhas). Divine Kings descended and taught men sciences and arts, for man could live no longer in the first land (Adi-Varsha, the Eden of the first Races), which had turned into a white frozen corpse.

The lowest of the Third Root-Race, after the separation of sexes, began to reproduce with animals. After this he Divine Kings intervened to stop the unnatural intercourse:

Upon seeing this (state of things), the kings and Lords of the Last Races (of the Third and the Fourth) placed the seal of prohibition upon the sinful intercourse. It interfered with Karma, it developed new (Karma).* They (the divine Kings) struck the culprits with sterility. They destroyed the Red and Blue Races.

Fourth Root-Race

Spiritual teachings were given publicly during the Third and early Fourth Root-Race by the Divine Rulers. These two races had innate spiritual and psychic faculties. However, as the Atlantean civilization became more material and "fell into sin," the Instructors created the Mystery Schools:

All that is explained in the preceding Sections and a hundredfold more was taught in the Mysteries from time immemorial. If the first appearance of those institutions is a matter of historical tradition with regard to some of the later nations, their origin must certainly be assigned to the time of the Fourth Root Race. The Mysteries were imparted to the elect of that Race when the average Atlantean had begun to fall too deeply into sin to be trusted with the secrets of Nature. Their establishment is attributed in the Secret Works to the King-Initiates of the divine dynasties, when the “Sons of God” had gradually allowed their country to become Kukarmadeœa (the land of vice).

These psychic faculties began to be used for selfish purposes and degenerated in sorcery:

The result and outcome of primitive Revelation to the earlier races by their “Divine Dynasties,” the kings-instructors, became innate knowledge in the Fourth race, that of the Atlanteans; and that knowledge is now called in its rare cases of “abnormal” genuine manifestation, mediumship. The secret history of the world, preserved only in far-away, secure retreats, would alone, if told unreservedly, inform the present generations of the powers that lie latent, and to most unknown, in man and nature. It was the fearful misuse of magic by the Atlanteans, that led their race to utter destruction, and—to oblivion. The tale of their sorcery and wicked enchantments has reached us, through classical writers, in fragmentary bits, as legends and childish fairy-tales, and as fathered on smaller nations. Thence the scorn for necromancy, goëtic magic, and theurgy. . . . It is the fatally abused magic that forced the adepts, “the Sons of Light,” to bury it deep, after its sinful votaries had themselves found a watery grave at the bottom of the ocean; thus placing it beyond the reach of the profane of the race that succeeded to the Atlanteans. It is, then, to sorcery that the world is indebted for its present ignorance about it.

This quote refers to the fact that when evil had spread all across the Atlantean civilization the Divine Kings had to intervene to put a stop to it, while protecting the few who had remained pure:

. . . . “And the ‘great King of the dazzling Face,’ the chief of all the Yellow-faced, was sad, seeing the sins of the Black-faced.

“He sent his air-vehicles (Viwân) to all his brother-chiefs (chiefs of other nations and tribes) with pious men within, saying: ‘Prepare. Arise ye men of the good law, and cross the land while (yet) dry.’
‘The Lords of the storm are approaching. . . . They are versed in Ashtar (Vidya, the highest magical knowledge). Come and use yours (i.e., your magic powers, in order to counteract those of the Sorcerers). Let every lord of the Dazzling Face (an adept of the White Magic) cause the Viwân of every lord of the Dark Face to come into his hands (or possession), lest any (of the Sorcerers) should by its means escape from the waters, avoid the rod of the Four, (Karmic deities) and save his wicked’ (followers, or people).
‘May every yellow face send sleep from himself (mesmerize?) to every black face. May even they (the Sorcerers) avoid pain and suffering. May every man true to the Solar Gods bind (paralyze) every man under the lunar gods, lest he should suffer or escape his destiny.
‘And may every yellow face offer of his life-water (blood) to the speaking animal of a black face, lest he awaken his master.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ‘Let their destiny be accomplished. We are the servants of the great Four. May the Kings of light return.’
“The great King fell upon his dazzling Face and wept. . . .
“When the Kings assembled the waters had already moved. . . .

“(But) the nations had now crossed the dry lands. They were beyond the water mark. Their Kings reached them in their Viwâns, and led them on to the lands of Fire and Metal (East and North).”

After saving the elect of the Atlanteans, the Divine Kings departed from the fourth Root-Race. Blavatsky comments on the following quote from a manuscript from the Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession:

“The Kings of Light have departed in wrath. The sins of men have become so black that Earth quivers in her great agony. . . . The azure seats remain empty. Who of the Brown, who of the Red, or yet among the Black (races), can sit in the seats of the Blessed, the Seats of knowledge and mercy! Who can assume the flower of power, the plant of the golden stem and the azure blossom?”

The “Kings of Light” is the name given in all old records to the Sovereigns of the divine Dynasties. The “azure seats” are translated “celestial thrones” in certain documents. The “flower of power” is now the Lotus; what it may have been at that period, who can tell.

The writer proceeds, like the later Jeremiah, to bewail the fate of his people. They had become bereft of their “azure” (celestial) kings, and “they of the Deva hue,” the moon-like complexion, and “they of the refulgent (golden) face” have gone “to the land of bliss, the land of metal and fire”; or—agreeably with the rules of symbolism—to the lands lying North and East, from whence “the great waters have been swept away, sucked in by the earth and dissipated in the air.” The wise races had perceived “the black storm-dragons, called down by the dragons of wisdom”—and “had fled, led on by the shining Protectors of the most Excellent Land”—the great ancient adepts, presumably; those the Hindus refer to as their Manus and Rishis. One of them was Vaivasvata Manu.

Fifth Root-Race

48. The Fifth Race produced from the Holy Stock (remained). It was ruled by Her First Divine Kings.

The first divine Kings, who are said to have “redescended,” guided and instructed our Fifth Race after the last deluge.

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.

There have been several Divine Dynasties—a series for every Root Race beginning with the Third, each series according and adapted to its Humanity. The last Seven Dynasties referred to in the Egyptian and Chaldean records belong to the Fifth Race, which, though generally called Aryan, was not entirely so, as it was ever largely mixed up with races to which Ethnology gives other names.

It was a common claim of all the ancient nations that the real mysteries of what is called so unphilosophically, creation, were divulged to the elect of our (fifth) race by its first dynasties of divine Rulers—gods in flesh, “divine incarnations,” or Avatars, so called. The last Stanzas, given from the Book of Dzyan in The Secret Doctrine (Vol. II, p. 21), speak of those who ruled over the descendants “. . . produced from the Holy stock,” and “. . . Who redescended, who made peace with the fifth [race], who taught and instructed it . . .”
The phrase “made peace” shows that there had been a previous quarrel. The fate of the Atlanteans in our philosophy, and that of the prediluvians in the Bible, corroborates the idea. Once more—many centuries before the Ptolemies—the same abuse of the sacred knowledge crept in amongst the initiates of the Sanctuary in Egypt. Preserved for countless ages in all their purity, the sacred teachings of the gods, owing to personal ambition and selfishness, became corrupted again.

See also

• Sons of the Fire-Mist
• Kabiri
• Naga
• Root-Race