Root-Race: Difference between revisions

From Theosophy Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
 
(52 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
'''Root-Race''' is a [[Theosophy|Theosophical]] concept that refers to successive evolutionary stages through which humanity goes in its pilgrimage on our physical plane. Seven of such root-races take place before completing the evolutionary cycle on this [[Globe|globe]], the Earth. '''NOTE: The term Root-Race does not refer to ethnicities or to to racial concepts of the modern world.'''
'''Root-Race''' is a [[Theosophy|Theosophical]] concept that refers to successive evolutionary stages through which humanity goes in its pilgrimage on our physical plane. Seven of such root-races take place before completing the evolutionary cycle on this [[Globe|globe]], the Earth.  
 
'''NOTE: The term Root-Race does not refer to ethnicities or to racial concepts of the modern world.'''


== General description ==
== General description ==
Line 6: Line 8:


<blockquote>Every life-cycle on [[Globe#Globe D|Globe D]] (our Earth) is composed of seven root-races. They commence with the Ethereal and end with the spiritual on the double line of physical and moral evolution—from the beginning of the terrestrial round to its close. (One is a “planetary round” from Globe A to Globe G, the seventh; the other, the “globe round”, or the terrestrial).<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 160.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>Every life-cycle on [[Globe#Globe D|Globe D]] (our Earth) is composed of seven root-races. They commence with the Ethereal and end with the spiritual on the double line of physical and moral evolution—from the beginning of the terrestrial round to its close. (One is a “planetary round” from Globe A to Globe G, the seventh; the other, the “globe round”, or the terrestrial).<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 160.</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Root-Races tree.gif|right|200px]]
<blockquote>
# There are seven ROUNDS in every manvantara; this one is the Fourth, and we are in the Fifth Root-Race, at present.<br>
# Each Root-Race has seven sub-races.<br>
# Each sub-race has, in its turn, seven ramifications, which may be called Branch or “Family” races.<br>
# The little tribes, shoots, and offshoots of the last-named are countless and depend on Karmic action.<br>
Examine the “genealogical tree” hereto appended, and you will understand. The illustration is purely diagrammatic, and is only intended to assist the reader in obtaining a slight grasp of the subject. . . .<br>
The main stem of a tree may be compared to the root-race (A).<br>
Its larger limbs to the various sub-races; seven in number (B1, B2).<br>
On each of these limbs are seven branches, or family-races (C).<br>
After this the cactus-plant is a better illustration, for its fleshy “leaves” are covered with sharp spines, each of which may be compared to a nation or tribe of human beings.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 434-435.</ref></blockquote>
=== Seven Root-Races ===


The Root-Races go through a process of [[Evolution#Cyclic evolution|cyclic evolution]] going from subtlety to materiality and back to subtlety:
The Root-Races go through a process of [[Evolution#Cyclic evolution|cyclic evolution]] going from subtlety to materiality and back to subtlety:
Line 13: Line 28:
<blockquote>Let us remember that the First Race is shown in Occult sciences as spiritual within and ethereal without; the second, psycho-spiritual mentally, and ethero-physical bodily; the third, still bereft of intellect in its beginning, is astro-physical in its body, and lives an inner life, in which the psycho-spiritual element is in no way interfered with as yet by the hardly nascent physiological senses.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 298-299, fn.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>Let us remember that the First Race is shown in Occult sciences as spiritual within and ethereal without; the second, psycho-spiritual mentally, and ethero-physical bodily; the third, still bereft of intellect in its beginning, is astro-physical in its body, and lives an inner life, in which the psycho-spiritual element is in no way interfered with as yet by the hardly nascent physiological senses.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 298-299, fn.</ref></blockquote>


These cycles take place throughout the seven [[Rounds]], and they vary in lentgth:   
These cycles take place throughout the seven [[Rounds]], and they vary in length:   


<blockquote>The seven Rounds decrease and increase in their respective durations, as well as the seven races in each. Thus the 4th Rounds as well as every 4h race are the shortest, while the 1st and 7th Rounds as the 1st and 7th root races are the longest.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 117.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>The seven Rounds decrease and increase in their respective durations, as well as the seven races in each. Thus the 4th Rounds as well as every 4th race are the shortest, while the 1st and 7th Rounds as the 1st and 7th root races are the longest.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 117.</ref></blockquote>


It is important to keep in mind that the term Root-Races does not refer to ethnicities. They are different evolutionary stages humanity as a whole goes through successively. Besides, the same individuals that compose the current humanity have been [[Reincarnation|reborn]] in all the previous Root-Races. In [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|H. P. Blavatsky]]'s words: "The mankind of the First Root-Race is the mankind of the second, third, fourth, fifth, etc."<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1979), fn. 146.</ref>
It is important to keep in mind that the term Root-Races does not refer to ethnicities. They are different evolutionary stages humanity as a whole goes through successively. Besides, the same individuals that compose the current humanity have been [[Reincarnation|reborn]] in all the previous Root-Races. In [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|H. P. Blavatsky]]'s words: "The mankind of the First Root-Race is the mankind of the second, third, fourth, fifth, etc."<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1979), fn. 146.</ref>


Each Root-Race succeed each other, although there is a period of overlapping between the old forms dying out and the new forms beginning to be more and more dominant. The end of a Root-Race and the beginning of a new one is marked by important geological changes:  
Each Root-Race succeed each other, although there is a period of overlapping between the old forms dying out and the new forms beginning to be more and more dominant:
 
<blockquote>To show how the continents, races, nations and cycles overlap each other, one has but to think of Lemuria, the last of whose lands perished about 700,000 years before the beginning of the Tertiary period (see p. 65 of the same work), and the last of “Atlantis” only 11,000 years ago; thus both overlapping—one the Atlantean period, and the other the Aryan.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 433, fn.</ref></blockquote>
 
The end of a Root-Race and the beginning of a new one is marked by important geological changes:  


<blockquote>The periods of the great root races are divided from each other by great convulsions of Nature, and by great geological changes.<ref>Alfred Percy Sinnett, ''Esoteric Buddhism'', (London: Theosophical Publishing House LTD, 1972), 48.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>The periods of the great root races are divided from each other by great convulsions of Nature, and by great geological changes.<ref>Alfred Percy Sinnett, ''Esoteric Buddhism'', (London: Theosophical Publishing House LTD, 1972), 48.</ref></blockquote>


<blockquote>Every root-race is separated by a catastrophe, a cataclysm—the basis and historical foundation of the fables woven later on into the religious fabric of every people, whether civilized or savage, under the names of “deluges,” “showers of fire” and such like.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. V (Los Angeles, CA: Philosophical Research Society, 1950), 163-164.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>Every root-race is separated by a catastrophe, a cataclysm—the basis and historical foundation of the fables woven later on into the religious fabric of every people, whether civilized or savage, under the names of “deluges,” “showers of fire” and such like.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. XIV (Los Angeles, CA: Philosophical Research Society, 1950), 81, fn.</ref></blockquote>


There seems to be also cataclisms
<blockquote>At the close of every Root-Race there comes a cataclysm, in turn by fire or water. Immediately after the “Fall into generation” the dross of the third Root-Race–those who fell into sensuality by falling off from the teaching of the Divine Instructors–were destroyed, after which the Fourth Root-Race originated, at the end of which took place the last Deluge.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 608.</ref></blockquote>
 
There are also cataclysms half-way every cycle:


<blockquote>The approach of every new "obscuration" is always signalled by cataclysms — of either fire or water. But, apart from this, every "Ring" or Root Race has to be cut in two, so to say, by either one or the other.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>The approach of every new "obscuration" is always signalled by cataclysms — of either fire or water. But, apart from this, every "Ring" or Root Race has to be cut in two, so to say, by either one or the other.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref></blockquote>


=== Early civilizations ===
According to Blavatsky, at the beginning of a new Root-Race a great adept (Manu) incarnates, chooses the best portion of humanity as the seed of the next Root-Race, and lets the old civilization be destroyed in the cataclysms.


In this view, there have been on Earth many civilization of which we know knothing at the moment. [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] wrote to [[Alfred Percy Sinnett|A. P. Sinnett]]:
In the Hindu scripture ''Vishnu Purana'' (4:24) we find a similar concept:


<blockquote>We affirm that a series of civilizations existed before, as well as after the Glacial Period, that they existed upon various points, of the globe, reached the apex of glory and — died.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 311.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>When . . . the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a portion of that divine being who exists of his own spiritual nature in the character of Brahma, and who is the beginning and the end, and who comprehends all things, shall descend upon earth: he will be born in the family of Viṣṇuyaśas, an eminent Brahman of Sambhala village, as Kalki, endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. By his irresistible might he will destroy all the Mlecchas and thieves, and all whose minds are devoted to iniquity. He will then reestablish righteousness upon earth; and the minds of those who live at the end of the Kali age shall be awakened, and shall be as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed by virtue of that peculiar time shall be as the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Krita age, or age of purity.</blockquote>
 
=== Seven Sub-races ===


The Master was aware that all these teachings contradicted those of modern [[science]]. However, he stood by his knowledge:
Each root-race is divided into seven minor cycles called sub-races,<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 66 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 174-175.</ref> which are again subdivided into seven branch or family races. These sub-divisions is related to the modern concept of races and ethnicities.


<blockquote>You cannot think that we, who have such tremendous odds against the acceptance of our doctrine would deliberately go on inventing Races and sub-races (in the opinion of [[Allan Octavian Hume|Mr. Hume]]) were not they a matter of undeniable fact.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 311.</ref></blockquote>
It must be remembered that the sub-races refer to cultural qualities and not to the level of evolution of the [[soul]]. When asked if one's incarnations are "in sub-race progression," Annie Besant answered, "They do not follow any regular law of succession."<ref>Annie Besant, ''Theosophical Lectures'', (Chicago: The Rajput Press, 1907), 147.</ref> People incarnate in the various sub-races in different orders to gather experiences.


As to why we do not find remains of the previous civilizations, one of the reasons is that the Root-Races live on a different parts of the earth, many of which cyclically sink as a new piece of land rises to lodge the new Root-Race:
Currently, humanity is undergoing the fifth Root-Race stage, and has developed five sub-races. However, the majority of human beings are incarnated in cultures that derive from previous Root-Races, and that had their apex of development far in the past. [[Koot Hoomi|Mahatma K.H.]] wrote:  


<blockquote>Our present continents, have — like "[[Lemuria]]" and "[[Atlantis]]" been several times already, submerged and had the time to reappear again, and bear their new groups of mankind and civilization; and that, at the first great geological upheaval, at the next cataclysm in the series of periodical cataclysms that occur from the beginning to the end of every Round, — our already autopsized continents will go down, and the Lemurias and Atlantises come up again.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 310.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>The majority of mankind belongs to the seventh sub-race of the fourth Root race, — the above mentioned Chinamen and their off-shoots and branchlets (Malayans, Mongolians, Tibetans, Javanese, etc., etc., etc.) and remnants of other sub-races of the fourth and the seventh sub-race of the third race. All these, fallen, degraded semblances of humanity are the direct lineal descendants of highly civilized nations neither the names nor memory of which have survived except in such books as Popalvul and a few others unknown to Science.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 312.</ref></blockquote>


Besides, as [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] explains, "every object of the civilized portions of humanity that inhabited those regions hav[e] been pulverized to dust by the great masses of travelling glaciers" leaving behind "only such rude implements as now found among those savage tribes".<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 310.</ref></blockquote> This is what geologists usually find when they come upon some ancient remains in regions of the modern continents that where inhabited by past Root-Races.
=== Against racism ===


=== Sub-races ===
When coming closer to a modern concept of ethnicity, Blavatsky clearly rejected the idea of one race being intrinsically better than another. Differences between them exist, but they are only due to external conditions (culture, environment, geographical isolation, etc.) In any case, to appreciate correctly the Theosophical view on this subject, the most important point to grasp is that a person's real identity is considered to be at the level of the eternal ''spiritual' self, and not at that of the ever-changing bodily conditions:


Each root-race is divided into seven minor cycles called sub-races,<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 66 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 174-175.</ref> which are again subdivided into seven branch or family races. These sub-divisions is related to the modern concept of races and ethnicities.
<blockquote>Everyone entering the society is supposed to sympathize with the theory of essential brotherhood; a kinship which exists on the plane of the higher self, not on that of the racial, social, and mental dissimilarities and antipathies. These elements of discord pertain to the physical man and are the result of unequal development under the law of evolution. We believe the human body to be but the shell, cover, or veil of the real entity; and those who accept the esoteric philosophy and the theory of “Karma” (the universal law of ethical causation) believe that the entity, as it travels around certain major and minor cycles of existence with the whole mass of human beings, takes on a different body at birth, and shells it off at death, under the operation of this Karmic law. Yet though it may thus clothe and reclothe itself a thousand times in a series of reincarnations, the entity is unchanged and unchangeable, being of a divine nature, superior to all environments on the earthly plane. It is the physical body only which has racial type, color, sex, hatreds, ambitions, and loves. So then, when we postulate the idea of universal brotherhood, we wish it understood that it is held in no Utopian sense, though we do not dream of realizing it at once on the ordinary plane of social or national relations. Most assuredly, if this view of the kinship of all mankind could gain universal acceptance, the improved sense of moral responsibility it would engender would cause most social evils and international asperities to disappear; for a true altruism, instead of the present egoism, would be the rule the world over.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. XII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 302.</ref></blockquote>


It must be remembered that the sub-races refer to cultural qualities and not to the level of evolution of the [[soul]]. People incarnate successively in different sub-races to gather different experiences.
Blavatsky also maintained the common origin of all races of humanity, even though they differ from each other:


Currently, humanity is undergoing the fifth Root-Race stage, and has developed five sub-races. However, the majority of human beings are incarnated in cultures that derive from previous Root-Races, and that had their apex of development far in the past. [[Koot Hoomi|Mahatma K.H.]] wrote:  
<blockquote>The unity of the human species was accepted by the illustrious Professor of Cambridge (U.S.A.) [Professor Agassiz] in the same way as the Occultists do—namely, in the sense of their essential and original homogeneity and their origin from one and the same source:—e.g., Negroes, Aryans, Mongols, etc., have all originated in the same way and from the same [[Pitris|ancestors]]. The latter were all of one essence, yet differentiated, because belonging to seven [[plane]]s which differed in degree though not in kind. That original physical difference was but little more accentuated by that of geographical and climatic conditions, later on.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 607, fn.</ref></blockquote>


<blockquote>The majority of mankind belongs to the seventh sub-race of the fourth Root race, — the above mentioned Chinamen and their off-shoots and branchlets (Malayans, Mongolians, Tibetans, Javanese, etc., etc., etc.) and remnants of other sub-races of the fourth — and the seventh sub-race of the third race. All these, fallen, degraded semblances of humanity are the direct lineal descendants of highly civilized nations neither the names nor memory of which have survived except in such books as Popalvul and a few others unknown to Science.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 312.</ref></blockquote>
Arguing against the European concept of the time that their races were intrinsically better than the Africans, Blavatsky explained:


== First Root-Race ==
<blockquote>The Africans have never left their continent for several hundred thousands of years. If to-morrow the continent of Europe were to disappear and other lands to re-emerge instead; and if the African tribes were to separate and scatter on the face of the earth, it is they who, in about a hundred thousand years hence, would form the bulk of the civilized nations. And it is the descendants of those of our highly cultured nations, who might have survived on some one island, without any means of crossing the new seas, that would fall back into a state of relative savagery.  Thus the reason given for dividing humanity into superior and inferior races falls to the ground and becomes a fallacy.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 425.</ref></blockquote>


<blockquote>The first root-race, i.e., the first “men” on earth (irrespective of form) were the progeny of the “celestial men,” called rightly in Indian philosophy the “Lunar Ancestors” or the Pitris, of which there are seven classes or Hierarchies.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 160.</ref></blockquote>
== Early civilizations ==


== Second Root-Race ==
In this view, there have been on Earth many civilizations of which we know nothing at the moment. [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] wrote to [[Alfred Percy Sinnett|A. P. Sinnett]]:


== Third Root-Race ==
<blockquote>We affirm that a series of civilizations existed before, as well as after the Glacial Period, that they existed upon various points, of the globe, reached the apex of glory and — died.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 311.</ref></blockquote>


[[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|Mme. Blavatsky]] wrote:
The Master was aware that all these teachings contradicted those of modern [[science]]. However, he stood by his knowledge:


<blockquote>Now compare the evolution of the Races, the First and the Second of which are of the nature of [[Ātman|Atma]]-[[Buddhi]], their passive Spiritual progeny, and the Third Root-Race shows three distinct divisions or aspects physiologically and psychically:  the earliest, sinless the middle portions awakening to intelligence; and the third and last decidedly animal: i.e., [[Manas]] succumbs to the temptations of [[Kāma|Kama]].<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 254, fn.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>You cannot think that we, who have such tremendous odds against the acceptance of our doctrine would deliberately go on inventing Races and sub-races (in the opinion of [[Allan Octavian Hume|Mr. Hume]]) were not they a matter of undeniable fact.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 311.</ref></blockquote>


The continent in which this Root-Race lived is called [[Lemuria]]:
As to why we do not find remains of the previous civilizations, one of the reasons is that the Root-Races live on a different parts of the earth, many of which cyclically sink as a new piece of land rises to lodge the new Root-Race:


<blockquote>[[Lemuria]] can no more be confounded with the Atlantic Continent [Atlantis] than Europe with America. Both sunk and were drowned with their high civilizations and "gods," yet between the two catastrophes, a short period of about 700,000 years elapsed; "Lemuria" flourishing and ending her career just at about that trifling lapse of time before the early part of the Eocene Age, since its race was the third. Behold, the relics of that once great nation in some of the flat headed aborigines of your Australia!<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 309.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>Our present continents have, like “[[Lemuria]]” and “[[Atlantis]],” been several times already submerged and had the time to reappear again, and bear their new groups of mankind and civilization; and that, at the first great geological upheaval, at the next cataclysm—in the series of periodical cataclysms that occur from the beginning to the end of every Round,—our already autopsized continents will go down, and the Lemurias and Atlantises come up again.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 310.</ref></blockquote>


[[Koot Hoomi|Mahatma K.H.]] said that some of the more primitive populations today are "side-shoots" of the third Root-Race:
Besides, as [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] explains, "every object of the civilized portions of humanity that inhabited those regions hav[e] been pulverized to dust by the great masses of travelling glaciers" leaving behind "only such rude implements as now found among those savage tribes".<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 310.</ref></blockquote> This is what geologists usually find when they come upon some ancient remains in regions of the modern continents that where inhabited by past Root-Races.


<blockquote>The Australian, the Esquimaux, the Bushmen, the Veddahs, etc., are all side-shooting branchlets of that Branch which you call "cave-men" — the third race.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 62 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), ???.</ref></blockquote>
== Root-Races==
=== First Root-Race ===


However, in the height of its cycle, the Third Root-Race developed great civilizations. In the words to the same [[Masters of Wisdom|Master]]:
The First Root-Race was one of sexless ethereal beings devoid of understanding, language, or any cognitive activity. They were produced by the [[Barhishad|Barhishad Pitris]], who emanated ethereal forms from themselves. They are called the "Chaya Race," ''chāyā'' being a [[Sanskrit]] word that means "image or shadow." These forms were overshadowed by human [[Monad]]s. According to [[H. P. Blavatsky]], this Race developed on seven separate regions of an island positioned where the north pole is now.


<blockquote>Greek and Roman and even Egyptian civilization are nothing compared to the civilizations that began with the 3rd race.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 310.</ref></blockquote>
Read more: [[First Root-Race]]


== Fourth Root-Race ==
=== Second Root-Race ===


<blockquote>In the Eocene Age — even in its "very first part," the great cycle of the fourth Race men, the Atlanteans — had already reached its highest point, and the great continent, the father of nearly all the present continents — showed the first symptoms of sinking — a process that occupied it down to 11,446 years ago, when its last island, that, translating its vernacular name, we may call with propriety Poseidonis — went down with a crash.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 309.</ref></blockquote>
Read more: [[Second Root-Race]]


<blockquote>What do you know of America, for instance, before the invasion of that country by the Spaniards? Less than two centuries prior to the arrival of Cortez there was as great a "rush" towards progress among the sub-races of Peru and Mexico as there is now in Europe and the U.S.A. Their sub-race ended in nearly total annihilation through causes generated by itself; so will yours at the end of its cycle.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 308.</ref></blockquote>
=== Third Root-Race ===


<blockquote>The Chinese — I now speak of the inland, the true Chinaman, not of the hybrid mixture between the fourth and the fifth Races now occupying the throne — the aborigines, who belong in their unallied nationality wholly to the highest and last branch of the fourth Race, reached their highest civilization when the fifth had hardly appeared in Asia.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 312.</ref></blockquote>
Read more: [[Third Root-Race]]


[[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] wrote that [[Atlantis]] "is greatly connected with [[evil]] if not with its origin".<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 313.</ref></blockquote>
=== Fourth Root-Race ===


The Atlantean continent was gradually sinking "while the new America was forming".<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref> Eventually, it leaft behind a few islands, the bigger of which was Poseidonis, mentioned by [[Plato]] in his writings:
Read more: [[Fourth Root-Race]]


<blockquote>The sinking of Atlantis (the group of continents and isles) begun during the Miocene period — as certain of your continents are now observed to be gradually sinking — and it culminated — first, in the final disappearance of the largest continent an event coincident with the elevation of the Alps; and second with that of the last of the fair Islands mentioned by Plato.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 312-313.</ref></blockquote>
=== Fifth Root-Race ===


The final sinking of the last island happened after a battle between the [[Adepts]] of the time and the black magicians who had taken control over humanity. Regarding the exact date of the sinking, in 1882 the [[Masters of Wisdom|Master]] put it in the year 9564 BC:
Read more: [[Fifth Root-Race]]


<blockquote>The great event — the triumph of our "[[Sons of the Fire-Mist|Sons of the Fire Mist]]" the inhabitants of "[[Shambhala|Shambullah]]" (when yet an island in the Central Asian Sea) over the selfish but not entirely wicked magicians of Poseidonis occurred just 11,446 ago.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 313.</ref></blockquote>
=== Sixth Root-Race ===


== Fifth Root-Race ==
<blockquote>There is a prophecy in certain Asiatic old books couched in the following terms, the sense of which we may make clearer by adding to it a few words in brackets.<br>
"And as the fourth (race) was composed of Red-yellow which faded into Brown-white (bodies), so the fifth will fade out into white-brown (the white races becoming gradually darker). The sixth and seventh Manushya (men?) will be born adults; and will know of no old age, though their years will be many. As the Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali (ages) have been each decreasing in excellence (physical as well as moral) so the ascending—Dvapara, Treta and Krita will be increasing in every excellence. As the life of man lasted 400 (years in the first, or Krita Yuga), 300 (years in Treta), 200 (years in Dvapara) and 100 (in the present Kali age); so in the next (the 6th Race) (the natural age of man) will be (gradually increased) 200, then 300 and 400 (in the two last yugas)".<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 117.</ref></blockquote>


In [[Mahatma_Letter_No._93b#Page 4|one of the Mahatma Letters]], [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] writers that "the fifth race — ours — began in Asia a million years ago."<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 309.</ref>
After [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] stated that the British Islands, France and other lands of the fifth Root-Race were going to sink, until they reappear at the end of the sixth Root-Race:


The Master regarded that the Indian civilization was the most evolved spiritually while the European was the one most developed on the intellectual level:
<blockquote>When they reappear again, the last seventh Sub-race of the sixth Root race of present mankind will be flourishing on "Lemuria" and "Atlantis" both of which will have reappeared also (their reappearance following immediately the disappearance of the present isles and continents), and very few seas and great waters will be found then on our globe, waters as well as land appearing and disappearing and shifting periodically and each in turn.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref></blockquote>


<blockquote>I told you before now, that the highest people now on earth (spiritually) belong to the first sub-race of the fifth root Race; and those are the Aryan Asiatics; the highest race (physical intellectuality) is the last sub-race of the fifth — yourselves the white conquerors.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 312.</ref></blockquote>
=== Seventh Root-Race ===


As to the point in the the current [[Law of Cycles|cycle]] of the fifth Root-Race, [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|Mme. Blavatsky]] wrote:
<blockquote>By the middle of the Seventh Race, says an occult prophecy, the struggle of the two conflicting Powers ([[Buddhi]] and [[Manas#Lower_manas|Kama-Manas]]) will have almost died out. Everything that is irredeemably sinful and wicked, cruel and destructive, will have been eliminated, and that which is found to survive will be swept away from being, owing, so to speak, to a [[Karma|Karmic]] tidal-wave in the shape of scavenger-plagues, geological convulsions and other means of destruction. The [[Round#Fifth_Round|Fifth Round]] will bring forth a higher kind of Humanity; and, as intelligent Nature always proceeds gradually, the last Race of this Round must necessarily develop the needed materials thereof. <ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. XIII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1982), 128.</ref></blockquote>


<blockquote>Humanity is on the descending pathway of its cycle. The rear-guard of the 5th race is crossing slowly the apex of its evolution and will soon find itself having passed the turning point. And, as the descent is always more rapid than the ascent, men of the new coming (the 6th) race are beginning to drop in occasionally.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 116.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>The last seventh Race will have its [[Buddha]] as every one of its predecessors had; but, its adepts will be far higher than any of the present race, for among them will abide the future [[Planetary Spirit|Planetary]], the [[Dhyāni-Chohan|Dhyan Chohan]] whose duty it will be to instruct or "refresh the memory" of the first race of the [[Round#Fifth_Round|fifth Round]] men after this [[Globe#Globe D|planet]]'s future [[Pralaya#Obscuration|obscuration]].<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref></blockquote>


<blockquote>As every sub-race and nation have their cycles and stages of developmental evolution repeated on a smaller scale, it must be the more so in the case of a Root-Race. Our race then has, as a Root-race, crossed the equatorial line and is cycling onward on the Spiritual side; but some of our sub-races still find themselves on the shadowy descending arc of their respective national cycles; while others again—the oldest—having crossed their crucial point, which alone decides whether a race, a nation, or a tribe will live or perish, are at the apex of spiritual development as sub-races.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 301.</ref></blockquote>
== Continents ==


Eventually, the continents of the fifth Root-Race will also sink. As Master K.H. wrote:
Each Root-Race has a new continent. These have a particular name in the [[Esoteric Philosophy]], although [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|Blavatsky]] did not publish them. She wrote:


<blockquote>[Such] is the future fate of your British Islands the first on the list of victims that have to be destroyed by fire (submarine volcanos) and water, France and other lands will follow suit.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>Before we turn to the Anthropogenesis of the prehistoric Races, it may be useful to agree upon the names to be given to the Continents on which the four great Races, which preceded our Adamic Race, were born, lived, and died. Their archaic and esoteric names were many, and varied with the language of the nationality which mentioned them in its annals and scriptures. . . .<br>
Therefore, in view of the possible, and even very probable confusion, that may arise, it is considered more convenient to adopt, for each of the four Continents constantly referred to, a name more familiar to the cultured reader. It is proposed, then, to call the first continent, or rather the first terra firma on which the first Race was evolved by the divine progenitors:<br>


<blockquote>When your race — the fifth — will have reached at its zenith of physical intellectuality, and developed the highest civilization (remember the difference we make between material and spiritual civilizations); unable to go any higher in its own cycle — its progress towards absolute evil will be arrested (as its predecessors the [[Lemuria]]ns and [[Atlantis|Atlanteans]], the men of the third and fourth races were arrested in their progress toward the same) by one of such cataclysmic changes; its great civilization destroyed, and all the sub-races of that race will be found going down their respective cycles, after a short period of glory and learning. See the remnants of the Atlanteans, — the old Greeks and Romans (the modern belong all to the fifth Race); see how great and how short, how evanescent were their days of fame and glory! For, they were but sub-races of the seven off-shoots of the "root race."<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref></blockquote>
I. [[First Root-Race#The Imperishable Sacred Land|The Imperishable Sacred Land]]. . . .<br>
II. The “Hyperborean” will be the name chosen for the Second Continent. . . .<br>
III. The third Continent, we propose to call “[[Lemuria]].”. . . .<br>
IV. “[[Atlantis]]” is the Fourth Continent.. . . .<br>
V. The Fifth Continent was America; but, as it is situated at the Antipodes, it is Europe and Asia Minor, almost coeval with it, which are generally referred to by the Indo-Aryan Occultists as the fifth.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 6-9.</ref></blockquote>


== Sixth Root-Race ==
The different masses of land sink and resurface cyclically. The shift of continents is connected with a change in the axis of the Earth and an inversion of the poles:


<blockquote>There is a prophecy in certain Asiatic old books couched in the following terms, the sense of which we may make clearer by adding to it a few words in brackets.<br>
<blockquote>That worlds (also Races) are periodically destroyed by fire (volcanoes and earthquakes) and water, in turn, and renewed, is a doctrine as old as man. Manu, Hermes, the Chaldees, all antiquity believed in this. Twice already has the face of the globe been changed by fire, and twice by water, since man appeared on it.  As land needs rest and renovation, new forces, and a change for its soil, so does water.  Thence arises a periodical redistribution of land and water, change of climates, etc., all brought on by geological revolution, and ending in a final change in the axis.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 725-726.</ref></blockquote>
"And as the fourth (race) was composed of Red-yellow which faded into Brown-white (bodies), so the fifth will fade out into white-brown (the white races becoming gradually darker). The sixth and seventh Manushya (men?) will be born adults; and will know of no old age, though their years will be many. As the Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali (ages) have been each decreasing in excellence (physical as well as moral) so the ascending—Dvapara, Treta and Krita will be increasing in every excellence. As the life of man lasted 400 (years in the first, or Krita Yuga), 300 (years in Treta), 200 (years in Dvapara) and 100 (in the present Kali age); so in the next (the 6th Race) (the natural age of man) will be (gradually increased) 200, then 300 and 400 (in the two last yugas)".<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 117.</ref></blockquote>


After [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] stated that the British Islands, France and other lands of the fifth Root-Race where going to sink, until they reappear at the end of the sixth Root-Race:
<blockquote>The poles inverted, in consequence of the great inclination of the axis, bringing each time as a result the displacement of the Oceans, the submersion of the polar lands, and the consequent upheaval of new continents in the equatorial regions, and vice versâ.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 360.</ref></blockquote>


<blockquote>When they reappear again, the last seventh Sub-race of the sixth Root race of present mankind will be flourishing on "Lemuria" and "Atlantis" both of which will have reappeared also (their reappearance following immediately the disappearance of the present isles and continents), and very few seas and great waters will be found then on our globe, waters as well as land appearing and disappearing and shifting periodically and each in turn.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>Why not admit—true, no one of them has ever thought of it—that our present continents have, like “Lemuria” and “Atlantis,” been several times already submerged and had the time to reappear again, and bear their new groups of mankind and civilization; and that, at the first great geological upheaval, at the next cataclysm — in the series of periodical cataclysms that occur from the beginning to the end of every Round,—our already autopsized continents will go down, and the Lemurias and Atlantises come up again.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993),???</ref></blockquote>


== Seventh Root-Race ==
After quoting this Blavatsky clarifies: "Not the ''same'' identical continents, of course."<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 333.</ref>


<blockquote>The last [[Root_race#Seventh_Root-Race|seventh Race]] will have its [[Buddha]] as every one of its predecessors had; but, its adepts will be far higher than any of the present race, for among them will abide the future [[Planetary Spirit|Planetary]], the [[Dhyāni-Chohan|Dhyan Chohan]] whose duty it will be to instruct or "refresh the memory" of the first race of the [[Round#Fifth_Round|fifth Round]] men after this [[Globe#Globe D|planet]]'s future [[Pralaya#Obscuration|obscuration]].<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref></blockquote>
== Modes of reproduction ==


<blockquote>By the middle of the Seventh Race, says an occult prophecy, the struggle of the two conflicting Powers ([[Buddhi]] and [[Manas#Lower_manas|Kama-Manas]]) will have almost died out. Everything that is irredeemably sinful and wicked, cruel and destructive, will have been eliminated, and that which is found to survive will be swept away from being, owing, so to speak, to a [[Karma|Karmic]] tidal-wave in the shape of scavenger-plagues, geological convulsions and other means of destruction. The [[Round#Fifth_Round|Fifth Round]] will bring forth a higher kind of Humanity; and, as intelligent Nature always proceeds gradually, the last Race of this Round must necessarily develop the needed materials thereof. <ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. XIII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1982), 128.</ref></blockquote>
Below are the different modes of birth of the various Root-Races described in [[The Secret Doctrine (book)|''The Secret Doctrine'']]:
<p>
* [[Barhishad|Barhiṣad Pitris]]: Self-existent
<p>
* [[First Root-Race]]: Self-born
<p>
* Early [[Second Root-Race]]: Budding
* Late Second Root-Race: Sweat-born
<p>
* Early [[Third Root-Race]]: Sweat-born
* Middle Third Root-Race: Egg-born
* Late Third Root-Race: Womb-born


<blockquote>The last seventh Race will have its [[Buddha]] as every one of its predecessors had; but, its adepts will be far higher than any of the present race, for among them will abide the future [[Planetary Spirit|Planetary]], the [[Dhyāni-Chohan|Dhyan Chohan]] whose duty it will be to instruct or "refresh the memory" of the first race of the [[Round#Fifth_Round|fifth Round]] men after this [[Globe#Globe D|planet]]'s future [[Pralaya#Obscuration|obscuration]].<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.</ref></blockquote>
== Development of language ==


==Online resources==
== Additional resources ==
===Articles and pamphlets===
===Articles ===
*[http://www.theosophy.ph/encyclo/index.php?title=Root_Races# Root Races] at Theosopedia
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/root-races Root Races] in Theosophy World. 
*[http://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/1394# Humans, Apes, and the Felix Culpa] by John Algeo
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/hermaphrodite Hermaphrodite] in Theosophy World.
*[http://www.theosophical.ca/adyar_pamphlets/AdyarPamphlet_No76.pdf# The Coming Race] by Annie Besant
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/hyperborean Hyperborean] in Theosophy World.
*[http://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/1413 The Next Stages in Human Spiritual Evolution, Part One] by Robert Ellwood
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/sweat-born Sweat-born] in Theosophy World.
*[http://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/1498 The Next Stages in Human Spiritual Evolution, Part Two] by Robert Ellwood
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/egg-born Egg-born] in Theosophy World.
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/dumb-races Dumb Races] in Theosophy World.
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/chaya Chāyā] in Theosophy World.
*[https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/humans-apes-and-the-felix-culpa Humans, Apes, and the Felix Culpa] by John Algeo
*[https://cdn.website-editor.net/e4d6563c50794969b714ab70457d9761/files/uploaded/AdyarPamphlet_No76.pdf# The Coming Race] by Annie Besant
*[https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/the-next-stages-in-human-spiritual-evolution-part-one The Next Stages in Human Spiritual Evolution, Part One] by Robert Ellwood
*[https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/the-next-stages-in-human-spiritual-evolution-part-two The Next Stages in Human Spiritual Evolution, Part Two] by Robert Ellwood
*[http://www.blavatsky.net/theosophy/judge/articles/onthe-future-a-few-reflections.htm# On the Future: A Few Reflections] by William Q. Judge
*[http://www.blavatsky.net/theosophy/judge/articles/onthe-future-a-few-reflections.htm# On the Future: A Few Reflections] by William Q. Judge
*[http://www.blavatsky.net/theosophy/judge/articles/rounds-and-races.htm# Rounds and Races] by William Q. Judge
*[http://www.blavatsky.net/index.php/rounds-and-races# Rounds and Races] by William Q. Judge
*[http://www.blavatsky.net/theosophy/judge/articles/why-races-die-out.htm# Why Races Die Out] by William Q. Judge
*[http://www.blavatsky.net/index.php/why-races-die-out# Why Races Die Out] by William Q. Judge
*[http://prajnaquest.fr/blog/the-dzogchen-tradition-teachings-a-parallel-with-the-s-d-cosmogenesis (On Modes of Reproduction) The Dzogchen Tradition Teachings – A Parallel with the S.D.] by Jacques Mahnich
*[http://www.blavatskytrust.org.uk/html/a_blavatsky_lecture_1999.htm#rendnote135# The Soul's Imperative] by Harold Tarn
* Santucci, James A. "The Notion of Race in Theosophy." ''Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions'' Vol. 11, No. 3 (February 2008), 37-63. Available from [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2008.11.3.37?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dtheosophy%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0%26wc%3Don&Search=yes&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents JSTOR].


===Books===
===Books===
*[http://www.anandgholap.net/Pedigree_Of_Man-AB.htm# The Pedigree of Man] by Annie Besant
*[http://www.anandgholap.net/Pedigree_Of_Man-AB.htm# The Pedigree of Man] by Annie Besant
=== Audio ===
* '''''Brotherhood and racial theory in The secret doctrine''''' by Pablo Sender. 2019. Available on CD from Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library. CD 1472.


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
Line 153: Line 205:
[[Category:Theosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Theosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Concepts in The Secret Doctrine]]
[[Category:Concepts in The Secret Doctrine]]
[[es:Raza-Raíz]]
[[it:Razze]]

Latest revision as of 19:53, 20 September 2024

Root-Race is a Theosophical concept that refers to successive evolutionary stages through which humanity goes in its pilgrimage on our physical plane. Seven of such root-races take place before completing the evolutionary cycle on this globe, the Earth.

NOTE: The term Root-Race does not refer to ethnicities or to racial concepts of the modern world.

General description

In the Theosophical view there are seven Root-Races or evolutionary cycles through which humanity evolves. Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

Every life-cycle on Globe D (our Earth) is composed of seven root-races. They commence with the Ethereal and end with the spiritual on the double line of physical and moral evolution—from the beginning of the terrestrial round to its close. (One is a “planetary round” from Globe A to Globe G, the seventh; the other, the “globe round”, or the terrestrial).[1]

Root-Races tree.gif
  1. There are seven ROUNDS in every manvantara; this one is the Fourth, and we are in the Fifth Root-Race, at present.
  2. Each Root-Race has seven sub-races.
  3. Each sub-race has, in its turn, seven ramifications, which may be called Branch or “Family” races.
  4. The little tribes, shoots, and offshoots of the last-named are countless and depend on Karmic action.

Examine the “genealogical tree” hereto appended, and you will understand. The illustration is purely diagrammatic, and is only intended to assist the reader in obtaining a slight grasp of the subject. . . .
The main stem of a tree may be compared to the root-race (A).
Its larger limbs to the various sub-races; seven in number (B1, B2).
On each of these limbs are seven branches, or family-races (C).

After this the cactus-plant is a better illustration, for its fleshy “leaves” are covered with sharp spines, each of which may be compared to a nation or tribe of human beings.[2]

Seven Root-Races

The Root-Races go through a process of cyclic evolution going from subtlety to materiality and back to subtlety:

These Races evolve from ethereality to materiality, and from the latter back again into relative physical tenuity of texture, so every living (so-called) organic species of animals with vegetation included, changes with every new Root-Race.[3]

Let us remember that the First Race is shown in Occult sciences as spiritual within and ethereal without; the second, psycho-spiritual mentally, and ethero-physical bodily; the third, still bereft of intellect in its beginning, is astro-physical in its body, and lives an inner life, in which the psycho-spiritual element is in no way interfered with as yet by the hardly nascent physiological senses.[4]

These cycles take place throughout the seven Rounds, and they vary in length:

The seven Rounds decrease and increase in their respective durations, as well as the seven races in each. Thus the 4th Rounds as well as every 4th race are the shortest, while the 1st and 7th Rounds as the 1st and 7th root races are the longest.[5]

It is important to keep in mind that the term Root-Races does not refer to ethnicities. They are different evolutionary stages humanity as a whole goes through successively. Besides, the same individuals that compose the current humanity have been reborn in all the previous Root-Races. In H. P. Blavatsky's words: "The mankind of the First Root-Race is the mankind of the second, third, fourth, fifth, etc."[6]

Each Root-Race succeed each other, although there is a period of overlapping between the old forms dying out and the new forms beginning to be more and more dominant:

To show how the continents, races, nations and cycles overlap each other, one has but to think of Lemuria, the last of whose lands perished about 700,000 years before the beginning of the Tertiary period (see p. 65 of the same work), and the last of “Atlantis” only 11,000 years ago; thus both overlapping—one the Atlantean period, and the other the Aryan.[7]

The end of a Root-Race and the beginning of a new one is marked by important geological changes:

The periods of the great root races are divided from each other by great convulsions of Nature, and by great geological changes.[8]

Every root-race is separated by a catastrophe, a cataclysm—the basis and historical foundation of the fables woven later on into the religious fabric of every people, whether civilized or savage, under the names of “deluges,” “showers of fire” and such like.[9]

At the close of every Root-Race there comes a cataclysm, in turn by fire or water. Immediately after the “Fall into generation” the dross of the third Root-Race–those who fell into sensuality by falling off from the teaching of the Divine Instructors–were destroyed, after which the Fourth Root-Race originated, at the end of which took place the last Deluge.[10]

There are also cataclysms half-way every cycle:

The approach of every new "obscuration" is always signalled by cataclysms — of either fire or water. But, apart from this, every "Ring" or Root Race has to be cut in two, so to say, by either one or the other.[11]

According to Blavatsky, at the beginning of a new Root-Race a great adept (Manu) incarnates, chooses the best portion of humanity as the seed of the next Root-Race, and lets the old civilization be destroyed in the cataclysms.

In the Hindu scripture Vishnu Purana (4:24) we find a similar concept:

When . . . the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a portion of that divine being who exists of his own spiritual nature in the character of Brahma, and who is the beginning and the end, and who comprehends all things, shall descend upon earth: he will be born in the family of Viṣṇuyaśas, an eminent Brahman of Sambhala village, as Kalki, endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. By his irresistible might he will destroy all the Mlecchas and thieves, and all whose minds are devoted to iniquity. He will then reestablish righteousness upon earth; and the minds of those who live at the end of the Kali age shall be awakened, and shall be as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed by virtue of that peculiar time shall be as the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Krita age, or age of purity.

Seven Sub-races

Each root-race is divided into seven minor cycles called sub-races,[12] which are again subdivided into seven branch or family races. These sub-divisions is related to the modern concept of races and ethnicities.

It must be remembered that the sub-races refer to cultural qualities and not to the level of evolution of the soul. When asked if one's incarnations are "in sub-race progression," Annie Besant answered, "They do not follow any regular law of succession."[13] People incarnate in the various sub-races in different orders to gather experiences.

Currently, humanity is undergoing the fifth Root-Race stage, and has developed five sub-races. However, the majority of human beings are incarnated in cultures that derive from previous Root-Races, and that had their apex of development far in the past. Mahatma K.H. wrote:

The majority of mankind belongs to the seventh sub-race of the fourth Root race, — the above mentioned Chinamen and their off-shoots and branchlets (Malayans, Mongolians, Tibetans, Javanese, etc., etc., etc.) and remnants of other sub-races of the fourth — and the seventh sub-race of the third race. All these, fallen, degraded semblances of humanity are the direct lineal descendants of highly civilized nations neither the names nor memory of which have survived except in such books as Popalvul and a few others unknown to Science.[14]

Against racism

When coming closer to a modern concept of ethnicity, Blavatsky clearly rejected the idea of one race being intrinsically better than another. Differences between them exist, but they are only due to external conditions (culture, environment, geographical isolation, etc.) In any case, to appreciate correctly the Theosophical view on this subject, the most important point to grasp is that a person's real identity is considered to be at the level of the eternal spiritual' self, and not at that of the ever-changing bodily conditions:

Everyone entering the society is supposed to sympathize with the theory of essential brotherhood; a kinship which exists on the plane of the higher self, not on that of the racial, social, and mental dissimilarities and antipathies. These elements of discord pertain to the physical man and are the result of unequal development under the law of evolution. We believe the human body to be but the shell, cover, or veil of the real entity; and those who accept the esoteric philosophy and the theory of “Karma” (the universal law of ethical causation) believe that the entity, as it travels around certain major and minor cycles of existence with the whole mass of human beings, takes on a different body at birth, and shells it off at death, under the operation of this Karmic law. Yet though it may thus clothe and reclothe itself a thousand times in a series of reincarnations, the entity is unchanged and unchangeable, being of a divine nature, superior to all environments on the earthly plane. It is the physical body only which has racial type, color, sex, hatreds, ambitions, and loves. So then, when we postulate the idea of universal brotherhood, we wish it understood that it is held in no Utopian sense, though we do not dream of realizing it at once on the ordinary plane of social or national relations. Most assuredly, if this view of the kinship of all mankind could gain universal acceptance, the improved sense of moral responsibility it would engender would cause most social evils and international asperities to disappear; for a true altruism, instead of the present egoism, would be the rule the world over.[15]

Blavatsky also maintained the common origin of all races of humanity, even though they differ from each other:

The unity of the human species was accepted by the illustrious Professor of Cambridge (U.S.A.) [Professor Agassiz] in the same way as the Occultists do—namely, in the sense of their essential and original homogeneity and their origin from one and the same source:—e.g., Negroes, Aryans, Mongols, etc., have all originated in the same way and from the same ancestors. The latter were all of one essence, yet differentiated, because belonging to seven planes which differed in degree though not in kind. That original physical difference was but little more accentuated by that of geographical and climatic conditions, later on.[16]

Arguing against the European concept of the time that their races were intrinsically better than the Africans, Blavatsky explained:

The Africans have never left their continent for several hundred thousands of years. If to-morrow the continent of Europe were to disappear and other lands to re-emerge instead; and if the African tribes were to separate and scatter on the face of the earth, it is they who, in about a hundred thousand years hence, would form the bulk of the civilized nations. And it is the descendants of those of our highly cultured nations, who might have survived on some one island, without any means of crossing the new seas, that would fall back into a state of relative savagery. Thus the reason given for dividing humanity into superior and inferior races falls to the ground and becomes a fallacy.[17]

Early civilizations

In this view, there have been on Earth many civilizations of which we know nothing at the moment. Master K.H. wrote to A. P. Sinnett:

We affirm that a series of civilizations existed before, as well as after the Glacial Period, that they existed upon various points, of the globe, reached the apex of glory and — died.[18]

The Master was aware that all these teachings contradicted those of modern science. However, he stood by his knowledge:

You cannot think that we, who have such tremendous odds against the acceptance of our doctrine would deliberately go on inventing Races and sub-races (in the opinion of Mr. Hume) were not they a matter of undeniable fact.[19]

As to why we do not find remains of the previous civilizations, one of the reasons is that the Root-Races live on a different parts of the earth, many of which cyclically sink as a new piece of land rises to lodge the new Root-Race:

Our present continents have, like “Lemuria” and “Atlantis,” been several times already submerged and had the time to reappear again, and bear their new groups of mankind and civilization; and that, at the first great geological upheaval, at the next cataclysm—in the series of periodical cataclysms that occur from the beginning to the end of every Round,—our already autopsized continents will go down, and the Lemurias and Atlantises come up again.[20]

Besides, as Master K.H. explains, "every object of the civilized portions of humanity that inhabited those regions hav[e] been pulverized to dust by the great masses of travelling glaciers" leaving behind "only such rude implements as now found among those savage tribes".[21] This is what geologists usually find when they come upon some ancient remains in regions of the modern continents that where inhabited by past Root-Races.

Root-Races

First Root-Race

The First Root-Race was one of sexless ethereal beings devoid of understanding, language, or any cognitive activity. They were produced by the Barhishad Pitris, who emanated ethereal forms from themselves. They are called the "Chaya Race," chāyā being a Sanskrit word that means "image or shadow." These forms were overshadowed by human Monads. According to H. P. Blavatsky, this Race developed on seven separate regions of an island positioned where the north pole is now.

Read more: First Root-Race

Second Root-Race

Read more: Second Root-Race

Third Root-Race

Read more: Third Root-Race

Fourth Root-Race

Read more: Fourth Root-Race

Fifth Root-Race

Read more: Fifth Root-Race

Sixth Root-Race

There is a prophecy in certain Asiatic old books couched in the following terms, the sense of which we may make clearer by adding to it a few words in brackets.
"And as the fourth (race) was composed of Red-yellow which faded into Brown-white (bodies), so the fifth will fade out into white-brown (the white races becoming gradually darker). The sixth and seventh Manushya (men?) will be born adults; and will know of no old age, though their years will be many. As the Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali (ages) have been each decreasing in excellence (physical as well as moral) so the ascending—Dvapara, Treta and Krita will be increasing in every excellence. As the life of man lasted 400 (years in the first, or Krita Yuga), 300 (years in Treta), 200 (years in Dvapara) and 100 (in the present Kali age); so in the next (the 6th Race) (the natural age of man) will be (gradually increased) 200, then 300 and 400 (in the two last yugas)".[22]

After Master K.H. stated that the British Islands, France and other lands of the fifth Root-Race were going to sink, until they reappear at the end of the sixth Root-Race:

When they reappear again, the last seventh Sub-race of the sixth Root race of present mankind will be flourishing on "Lemuria" and "Atlantis" both of which will have reappeared also (their reappearance following immediately the disappearance of the present isles and continents), and very few seas and great waters will be found then on our globe, waters as well as land appearing and disappearing and shifting periodically and each in turn.[23]

Seventh Root-Race

By the middle of the Seventh Race, says an occult prophecy, the struggle of the two conflicting Powers (Buddhi and Kama-Manas) will have almost died out. Everything that is irredeemably sinful and wicked, cruel and destructive, will have been eliminated, and that which is found to survive will be swept away from being, owing, so to speak, to a Karmic tidal-wave in the shape of scavenger-plagues, geological convulsions and other means of destruction. The Fifth Round will bring forth a higher kind of Humanity; and, as intelligent Nature always proceeds gradually, the last Race of this Round must necessarily develop the needed materials thereof. [24]

The last seventh Race will have its Buddha as every one of its predecessors had; but, its adepts will be far higher than any of the present race, for among them will abide the future Planetary, the Dhyan Chohan whose duty it will be to instruct or "refresh the memory" of the first race of the fifth Round men after this planet's future obscuration.[25]

Continents

Each Root-Race has a new continent. These have a particular name in the Esoteric Philosophy, although Blavatsky did not publish them. She wrote:

Before we turn to the Anthropogenesis of the prehistoric Races, it may be useful to agree upon the names to be given to the Continents on which the four great Races, which preceded our Adamic Race, were born, lived, and died. Their archaic and esoteric names were many, and varied with the language of the nationality which mentioned them in its annals and scriptures. . . .

Therefore, in view of the possible, and even very probable confusion, that may arise, it is considered more convenient to adopt, for each of the four Continents constantly referred to, a name more familiar to the cultured reader. It is proposed, then, to call the first continent, or rather the first terra firma on which the first Race was evolved by the divine progenitors:

I. The Imperishable Sacred Land. . . .
II. The “Hyperborean” will be the name chosen for the Second Continent. . . .
III. The third Continent, we propose to call “Lemuria.”. . . .
IV. “Atlantis” is the Fourth Continent.. . . .

V. The Fifth Continent was America; but, as it is situated at the Antipodes, it is Europe and Asia Minor, almost coeval with it, which are generally referred to by the Indo-Aryan Occultists as the fifth.[26]

The different masses of land sink and resurface cyclically. The shift of continents is connected with a change in the axis of the Earth and an inversion of the poles:

That worlds (also Races) are periodically destroyed by fire (volcanoes and earthquakes) and water, in turn, and renewed, is a doctrine as old as man. Manu, Hermes, the Chaldees, all antiquity believed in this. Twice already has the face of the globe been changed by fire, and twice by water, since man appeared on it. As land needs rest and renovation, new forces, and a change for its soil, so does water. Thence arises a periodical redistribution of land and water, change of climates, etc., all brought on by geological revolution, and ending in a final change in the axis.[27]

The poles inverted, in consequence of the great inclination of the axis, bringing each time as a result the displacement of the Oceans, the submersion of the polar lands, and the consequent upheaval of new continents in the equatorial regions, and vice versâ.[28]

Why not admit—true, no one of them has ever thought of it—that our present continents have, like “Lemuria” and “Atlantis,” been several times already submerged and had the time to reappear again, and bear their new groups of mankind and civilization; and that, at the first great geological upheaval, at the next cataclysm — in the series of periodical cataclysms that occur from the beginning to the end of every Round,—our already autopsized continents will go down, and the Lemurias and Atlantises come up again.[29]

After quoting this Blavatsky clarifies: "Not the same identical continents, of course."[30]

Modes of reproduction

Below are the different modes of birth of the various Root-Races described in The Secret Doctrine:

  • Early Third Root-Race: Sweat-born
  • Middle Third Root-Race: Egg-born
  • Late Third Root-Race: Womb-born

Development of language

Additional resources

Articles

Books

Audio

  • Brotherhood and racial theory in The secret doctrine by Pablo Sender. 2019. Available on CD from Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library. CD 1472.

Notes

  1. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 160.
  2. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 434-435.
  3. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1979), 697.
  4. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 298-299, fn.
  5. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 117.
  6. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1979), fn. 146.
  7. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 433, fn.
  8. Alfred Percy Sinnett, Esoteric Buddhism, (London: Theosophical Publishing House LTD, 1972), 48.
  9. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. XIV (Los Angeles, CA: Philosophical Research Society, 1950), 81, fn.
  10. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 608.
  11. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.
  12. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 66 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 174-175.
  13. Annie Besant, Theosophical Lectures, (Chicago: The Rajput Press, 1907), 147.
  14. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 312.
  15. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. XII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 302.
  16. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 607, fn.
  17. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 425.
  18. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 311.
  19. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 311.
  20. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 310.
  21. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 310.
  22. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 117.
  23. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.
  24. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. XIII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1982), 128.
  25. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 314.
  26. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 6-9.
  27. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 725-726.
  28. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 360.
  29. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 93b (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993),???
  30. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. II, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 333.