Chapter VIII.

FIRST HUMAN STEPS.
Thk Third Life-Wave.
The middle of the Third Root-Race 1 been reached ; the nervous apparatus of animal man had been built up to a point at which it needed for its further improve- ment the more direct flow of thoug^ht from the spiritual Triad to which it was attached ; the Group-Soul had completed its work for these, the higher products of evolution, as the medium by which the life of the Second Lojros protected and nourished His infant children ; it was now to form the foundation of the causal body, the vessel into which the down-pouring life was to be received : the term of the ante-natal life of the Monad was touched, and the time was ripe for his birth into thi
FnsT nuM.o» s-rars.
' lower wocW. The mother-life of the Logos had buDi for him the bodies in
which he codd
separate
now live as entity in the world of forms, and he wns to come into direct possession of his bodies and take up his human evolutioit.
We have seen that the Monads derive their being from the First Lojjos, and dvirell on the anupadaka, the second, plane during the ages over which wc have glanced. We have also seen that they appropriated to themselves with the help of different agents the three permanent atoms that represent them as JivAtmAs on the third, fourth, and fifth planes, and also those which form the lower triad on the 6fth, sixth, and seventh. All the communication of the Monad with the planes below his own h;is been through the SfitratmS, the life-thread, on which the atoms are strung, that life-thread — of second plane matter — .passing from the Atmic atom to the buddhic. from the buddhic to the m^nasic, and from the mAna-sic re-entering the fllmic, thus making the " Triangle of Light " on the higher planes. We have seen further
172 A STUnv IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
that from the line of this Triangle on the buddhic plane comes forth a thread, the Siitratina of the lower planes, on which the lower triad is strung.
The time has now come for a fuller communication than is represented by this delicate thread in its original form, and it, as it were, widens out. This is but a clumsy way of picturing the fact that the Ray from the Monad glows and increases, assuming more the form of a funnel : " The thread between the Silent Watcher and his shadow becomes more strong and radiant."' This downflow of monadic life is accompanied by much increased flow between the buddhic and manasic perma- nent atoms, and the latter seems to awaken, sending out thrills in every direc- tion. Other manasic atoms and molecules gather round it, and a whirling vortex is seen on the three upper sub-planes of the mental plane. A similar whirling motion is seen in the cloudy mass surrounding the attached mental unit below, enveloped in the remaining layer of the Group-Soul, as already described. The layer is torn ' Tkt Seeref Doctrine, i. 185.
asunder, and caught up into the vortex above, where it is disintegrated, and the causal body is formed, a delicate filmy envelope, as the whirlpool subsides. This downflow of life, resulting in the formation of the causal body, is called the Third Life - Wave, and is properly ascribed to the First Logos, since the Monads came forth from Him and represent His triune life.
The causal body once formed, the spiritual Triad has a permanent vehicle for further evolution, and when Consciousness becomes able to function freely in this vehicle, the Triad will be able to control and direct, far more effectively than ever before, the evolution of the lower vehicles.
The earlier efforts to control are not, however, of a very intelligent description, any more than the first movements of the body of the infant show they are directed by any intelligence, although we know that
tan intelligence is connected with it. The Monad is now. in a very real sense, born on the physical plane, but still he must be regarded as a babe there, and must pass
174 ^ STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
his power over the physical body will anything but infantile.
§2. Human Development.
And this is clearly seen if we look at man as he was in his early days. Those long-perished Lemurians — if we except those entities who had already developed consciousness to a considerable extent, and who took birth in the clumsy Lemurian bodies in order to lead human evolution — were very poorly developed as to their sense organs ; those of smell and taste were not developed, but were only in process of building. Their sensitiveness to pleasure and pain was slight.
In the Atlanteans the senses were much more active : sight was very keen and hearing was acute ; taste was more developed than among the Lemurians, but was still not highly evolved ; coarse and rank foods were found perfectly tolerable and even agreeable, and very highly- flavoured articles of diet, such as decaying meat, were preferred to more delicate viands, which were considered
FIRST HUMAN STEPS.
iTSi
tasteless. The body was not very sensitive to injuries, and severe wounds did not cause much pain, nor were fallowed by prostration— even extensive lacerations failing to incapacitate the sufferer — and healing very quickly. The remnants of the Lemurian Race now existing, as well as the widely spread Atlantean, still show a relative in sensitiveness to pain, and undergo, with very partial disablement, lacerations that would utterly prostrate a fifth Race man. A North American Indian has been reported as fighting on after the side of the thigh had been slashed away, and taking the field again after twelve or fifteen hours. This characteristic of the fourth Race body enables a savage to bear with com[>osure, and to recover from, tortures that would prostrate a fifth Race man from nervous shock.
These differences derive largely from the varying developments of the per- manent atom, the nucleus of the physical body. There is, in the fifth Root-Race, a fuller stream of life pouring down, causing the greater internal development of the permanent atom, and increasing as
176 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
that development proceeds. As evolution goe.s on, there is An increasinjj complexity of vibratory powers in the physical per- manent atom, a similar increase in the astral atom, and again in the mental unit, As birth follows birth, and these permanent nuclei are put out on each plane to gather round them the new mental, astral and physical encasements, the more highly developed permanent atoms draw round them the more highly developed atoms on the planes to which they belong, and thus build up a better nervous apparatus through which the ever-increasing stream of con- sciousness can flow. In this way is built up the delicately organised nervous apparatus of the fifth Race man,
1 n the fifth Race man the inten differentiation of the nervous cell; much increased, and the intercommunica- tions are much more numerous. Speaking generally, the consciousness of the fifth Race man is working on the astral plane, and is withdrawn from the physical body except so far as the cerebro- spinal nervous system is concerned. The control of the vital organs of the body is left to
0U8 -J
FIRST HUMAN STEPS. IJf
■sympathetic system, crained through long ages to perform this work, and now kept going by impulses from the astral centres other than the ten. without deliberate attention from the otherwise occupied consciousness, although of course sus- tained by it It is, however, as we shall presently see, quite possible to draw the attention of consciousness again to this part of its mechanism, and to reassume intelligent control of it In the more highly evolved members of the fifth Race, the main impulses of consciousness are sent down from the lower mental world, and work down through the astral to the physical, and there stimulate the physical nervous activity. This is the keen, subtle, intelligent consciousness, moved by ideas more than by sensations, ajid showing itself more actively in the mental and emotional brain -centres than in those concerned with sensory and motor pheno- mena.
The sense - organs of the fifth Race body are less active and acute than those of the highest fourth Race in responding to purely physical impacts. The eye, the
178 A STUDY m CONSCIOUSNESS,
ear, the touch do not respond to vibra- tions which would affect the fourth Race se'nse-organs. It is significant, also, that these organs are at their keenest in early childhood, and diminish in sensitive- ness from about the sixth year onward. On the other hand, while less acute in receiving pure sense- impacts, they become more sensitive to sensations intermingled with emotions, and delicacies of colour and of sound, whether of nature or of art, appeal to them more effectively. The higher and more intricate organisation of the sense-centres in the brain and in the astral body seems to bring about increased sensitiveness to beauty of colour, form, and sound, but diminished response to the sensations in which the emotions play no part.
The fifth Race body is also far more sensitive to shock than are the bodies of the fourth and third Races, being more dependent upon consciousness for its upkeep. A nervous shock is far more keenly felt, and entails far greater prostra- tion. A severe mutilation is no longer a question merely of lacerated muscle,
nRST HUMAN STEPS.
179
I torn tissues, but of dangerous nervous I shock ; the highly organised nervous system carries the message of distress to I the brain centres, and it is sent on from them to the astral body, disturbing and upsetting the astral consciousness. This is followed by disturbance on the mental plane ; imagination is aroused, memory stimulates anticipation, and the rush of mental impulses intensifies and prolongs sensiitions. These again sliniulate and excite the nervous system, and its undue excitation acts on the vital organs, causing organic disturbance ; hence depression of vhality and slow recovery.
So also in the highly evolved fifth Race body, mental conditions largely rule the physical, and intense anxiety, mental suftering, and worry, producing nervous tension, readily disturb organic processes and bring about weakness or disease. Hence mentnl strength and serenity directly promote physical health, and when the consciousness is definitely established on the astral or the mental plane, emotional and mental disturbance arc far more [iroductive of ilMiealih than
i8o
any privations inflicted on the physical body. The evolved fifth Race man lives_ physically literally in his nervous system.
§3. Incongruous Souls and Bodies.
But we should here notice a signiticai fact, bearing on the all-important question of the relation of the nervous organisation to consciousness. When a human con- sciousness has not yet grown beyond the later Lemurian or earlier Atlantean type, but is born into a fifth Race body, it presents a curious and interest- ing study. (The reasons for such birth cannot here be enlarged upon briefly, as the more advanced natioi annex the lands occupied by little evolved tribes, and kill them off either directly or indirectly, the people thus summarily evicted from their bodies have to find new habitats ; the suitable savage conditions are becoming rarer and rarer, under the ever- expanding flood of higher races, and they have to take birth under the lowest avail- able conditions, such as the slums of large cities, in families of criminal types. Th
1
FIKST HCICAV STSr&
are drawn to the cooquenng natkm hf kftnnic pcce ssi ty.) Sudi persons tacanate in fifth Race bodfies ot the worst avmiUbfe maieriaL They then show out ia diese fifth Race bodies the qualities that bdu^ to the earlier fourth or the third ; and though they have the ^ysical outer nervous organisation, they have not the internal difierentiation in the nervuus matter that only con«es with the pUy on physical matter of energies coming from the astral and menial worlds. W'c observe in ihem the non -responsiveness lo impres- sions from outside, unless the impressions are of a violent order, that marks the low grade uf development of the individual consciousness. We notice ihfc falling back into inertia when a violent physical stimulus is absent ; the recurrent craving for such violent stimulus when roused by physical necessities ; the stirring into faint mental activity under vehement impact on the sense-organs, and the blankncss when the sense-organs are at rest ; the complete absence of any response to a thought or a high emotion — not a rejection but an un- consciousness of it. Excitement or violence
|82
STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
in such a person Is caused as a rule by something outside— by something coming before him physically which his dawning mind connects wi th the possibility of gratifying some passion which he remem- bers, and desires again to feel. Such person may not be intent on robbery murder at all. but may be stimulated into either or both by the mere sight of a well dressed passer-by who seems likely to have money — money, that means gratification by food, drink, or sex. The stimulus to attack the passer-by is at once given, and will be followed at once by action, unli checked by a physical and obvious dangei such as the sight of a policeman. It the embodied physical temptation whi arouses the idea of committing the crime f a man who plans a crime beforehand is more highly developed ; the mere savage commits a crime on the impulse of the moment, unless faced by another physical embodiment, that of a force which he fears. And when the crime is committed, he is impervious to all appeals to shame or remorse ; he is susceptible only to terror. These remarks do not, of course,
ot
M
I to ^
> ^pplMlfl
FIRST HUUAN STEPS.
I the intelligent criminal, but only to the congenital brutal and obtuse type, the third or fourth Race savage in a fifth Race body.
As the truths of the Ancient Wisdom [ more and more colour modern thought, they will inevitably, among other things, modify the treatment of the criminal. Such criminals as are here spoken of will not be punished brutally, but will be kept permanently under strict discipline, and will be, as far as is practicable, aided to progress more quickly than would have been possible under the conditions of savage life. But the further consideration of this would lead us too far from our main study, and we must now return to the workings of consciousness on the astral plane, as they show themselves in the higher animals and in the lower human types.
{4. DaWM or CONSCtOUSNESS ON THK AsTRAL
Plame.
We have seen thai astral organisation I {H-ecedes and shapes the physical nervous
184 A STUbV IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
system, and we have now to consider how this must affect the workings of consciousness. We should expect to 6nd that consciousness on the astral plane will become aware of impacts on its astral sheath in a vague and unprecise way. just as, in the minerals and the plants and the lowest animals, it became aware of impacts on its physical body. This awareness of astral impacts will long precede any definite organisation in the astral sheath, the bridge between the mental and the physical, that will gradually evolve it into an astral body, the independent vehicle of consciousness on the astral plane. And, as we have seen, the first organisation in the astral sheath is a response to impacts received through the physical body, and is related to the physical body in its evolution. This organisation has nothing to do directly with the reception, co-ordination, and understanding of astral impacts, but is engaged in being acted upon by. and re-acting on, the physical nervous system. Consciousness everywhere precedes Self- consciousness, and the evolution of
is Self- J of con- I
FIRST HUMAN STEPS. 185
sciousiiess on the astral plane proceeds contemporaneously with the evolution of Self-cunsciousnsss — to be dealt with pre- sently — on the physical.
The impacts on the astral sheath from the astral plane produce vibratory waves over the whole astral sheath, and the enshealhed consciousness gradually be- comes dimly aware of these surgjngs, without relating them to any external cause. 1 1 is groping after the much more violent physical impacts, and such power of attention as it has evolved is turned on them. The aggregations of astral mailer, connected with the physical nervous systems, naturally share in the general surgings of the astral sheath, and the vib- rations caused by these surgings mingle with those coming from the physical body, and affect also the vibrations sent down to [ it by the consciousness through these aggre- I gallons. Thus a connexion is established between astral impacts and the sympa- thetic system, and they play a considerable