CHAPTER VIII

THE FOURTH ROOT RACE
The Head of the Hierarchy began, almost imme¬ diately after His coming, to make arrangements for the founding of the fourth Root Race, employing the future Manu to pick out the smallest, densest and best of the Lemurian types available ; and while the founding and growth of civilisation under the King-Initiates were going forward among the Lemurians, the Manu of the coming Race was diligently seeking for the egos suitable for His purpose, and selecting for them appropriate incarn¬ ations. He gathered together, in one case, thousands of people, and finally selected one, after tests that lasted over many years, evidently experiencing much difficulty in finding desirable ancestors for His Race. Tribes were set apart, their members inter-marrying for long periods, and the Manu chose
i
promising specimens and transplanted them ; He and His disciples incarnated in the progeny of these to raise the physical level. He carried on various experiments simultaneously on the points of the Star, utilising ihe differences of climate. It looked at first a hopeless task, as though negroes and mulattoes should inter-marry to make a white race ; but after generations of selection within a tribe, He would
108 MAN : WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
take away one or two, and pair them off with
another one or two, similarly selected from another
tribe. The third-Race Manu had evolved a blue
type for His sixth sub-race, and a bluish-white for
His seventh, though the masses of the Lemurians
remained black ; some of the fourth sub-race
also mixed in with the blue, and slowly, very
slowly, the general Lemurian type improved. It
is noticeable also that when, in other parts of
the world a lighter-coloured or better type appeared,
•
it was sent off to the Manu, and He tried to find for it a suitable husband or wife ; we observed one that was thus sent in from the Madagascan city, and others similarly came in from elsewhere.
More rapid progress was made after the ar¬ rival of the Initiates, mentioned at the close of the last chapter, the best of the bodies improved by their indwelling being taken by the Manu for the shaping of His first sub-race ; the fourth Race had thus, ultimately, a very fine founding and nursing, thanks to the large number of developed people who took the lead and pressed things forward. The Manu was able, finally, to take the bodies of the seventh sub-race, improved by the Initiates using them, as the nucleus of His first sub-race, the Rmoahal, of the fourth Root Race. All who were taken on into the fourth Root Race were the Initiates and their disciples in these bodies, and none at this stage were taken from those who had previously been evolving on the Earth Chain.
Subba Rao distinguished the Lemurians as blue- black, the Atlanteans as red-yellow, and the Aryans
THE FOURTH ROOT RACE
109
as brown- white. We find the fourth Race Manu eliminating the blue from the colour of His people, passing through purple into the red of the Rmoahal sub-race, and then, by mixing in the blue-white of the seventh Lemurian sub-race, He obtained the first sub-race which seemed to be fully human, and that we could imagine as living among ourselves. After the race-type was fully established, He thus had the materials for the rich red-brown of the Toltec, the third sub-race, the most splendid and imperial of the Atlantean peoples, which ruled the world for tens of thousands of years. After a long period of patient working, about a million years having been spent in taking stupendous trouble and care, He reached a fair resemblance to the type given to Him to produce ; then He definitely founded the Race, He Himself taking incarnation, and calling His disciples to take bodies in His own family, His posterity thus forming the Race. In the most literal sense the Manu of a Race is its Progenitor, for the whole Race has its Manu as its physical ancestor.
Even the Manu’s immediate descendants, however, were not a very attractive-looking crowd, judging by our present standard, although a vast improve¬ ment on the surrounding population. They were smaller, but had no nervous organisation worth speaking of, and their astral bodies were shapeless. It is extraordinary what He made of such a body for Himself, moulding and shaping it after His own astral and mental bodies, and modifying the pigment in the skin, till He worked it into more of the colour that He wished for His Race.
110 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
After this many generations passed before the young Race took possession of its continent, Atlantis, but from this point onwards ship-loads of egos begin to come in from the Inter-Chain Nirvana, to inhabit the fourth Race bodies. The Manu arranged with the Root-Manu to send Him large numbers of egos ready for incarnation — those from globe D of the Moon Chain who had complete causal bodies, and who had individualised in the lunar fourth and fifth Rounds. Some of these came into the Tlavatli sub-race, and some later into the Toltec, when it was evolved ; and then He again incarnated in the latter, and found¬ ed the City of the Golden Gates, the first of many successive cities of that name. The founding was about one million years ago, one hundred and fifty thousand years before the first great catastrophe which rent the continent of Atlantis.
The Toltec was at this time the ruling Race, by virtue of its great superiority. It was a warrior race, going all over the world and subduing its in¬ habitants, but its pure types never formed the lower classes anywhere. Even in the City of the Golden Gates, only the aristocracy and the middle class were Toltec ; the lower classes were ot mixed blood, and were largely composed of men and women taken captive in wars with other sub¬ races, and reduced to servitude by their conquerors.
At this time arrived on Earth a shin-load of egos, in a group of whom — which kept much to¬ gether — we are specially interested, as it contain¬ ed many old friends, Sirius, Orion, Leo and others ; some of these were ear-marked on their arrival by Vaivasvata Manu — the Manu of the fifth Race — as
THE FOURTH ROOT RACE
111
part of His future materials. Hence H. P. Blavatsky speaks of the founding of the fifth Race as occur¬ ring one million years ago, though it was only led out from Atlantis 79,997 B. C. These, later, formed the group with an average 1,200 to 1,000 years’ interval between death and re-birth.1
The interval between death and re-birth was at this time naturally somewhat shorter, for the material gathered in these primitive lives was not enough to make a long interval, however thinly spread out. The people were not yet capable of deep feeling, though making something out of the heaven-life. In the heaven-world these egos kept together, and the filmy beings connected with them in the in¬ tuitional sphere showed a strong affinity for each other. In the lower spheres there was apparently a dull, groping, sense of 4 want,’ as though they were very dimly sensing the absence of the old friends of former lives and of the Inter-Chain interval, who were still sleeping away in the Inter-chain Nirvana, not to arrive on Earth for another 400,000 years. In the intuitional sphere, these 700-year people were in touch with the 1,200-year group, but it was only when the former arrived on the Earth that there was a time of general rejoicing among the egos in the higher mental sphere, due chiefly to the arrival of those who were the most deeply loved and revered — the future Masters. Those immediately
1 These intervals must be taken provisionally ; the intervals between death and re-birth in this group and in the one mentioned below were relatively about as these lengths.
112 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
connected with some of the earlier group were still in that Nirvana, although others had come to earth with the 1,200-year set, among them the two future Masters who now wear English bodies.1 A good deal of slight retarding or hastening of re-birth was resorted to, in order to keep the group together in incarnation.
In one of these early lives, Corona 2 — a very fine fighter — came from the City of the Golden Gates, and conquered the Tlavatli tribe in which our friends had incarnated. Unconscious as he was of the tie between them, he was yet influenced by it, and treated the tribe kindly: instead of carrying them off as slaves, he introduced various improve¬ ments, and incorporated the tribe into the Toltec Empire. Sirius took several births in the Tlavatli sub-race, and then passed into the Toltec. Glancing forward, we saw him once incarnated among the Rmoahals, in order to be with Ursa and others, then several lives were passed in the Turanian, the fourth sub-race — a Chinese stage — and a number in the Akkadian, the sixth ; he was observed trad¬ ing among a people who resembled the Phoenicians of later times. He did not take the sub-races in any special order, and it is difficult, at present, to generalise on this question.
Shiploads of egos continued to arrive, and the main cause of separation seemed to be the method of individualisation. Egos of all Rays, or tempera¬ ments, of similar general development were mixed
A They were once Sir Thomas More and ‘ Philalethes 9 Thomas Vaughan.
3 Known in later history as Julius Cassar.
THE FOURTH ROOT RACE
113
up, but those of different intervals between re-births were not. Nor was there any mingling of the large classes of the Moon-Men and Animal-Men. Unless an individual had been taken through the Inner Round, and had undergone its special forcing, when he passed into the class ahead of him, the broad lines of distinction remained, and one class did not overtake another. Even when the Basket- works had completed their causal bodies, the basket origin remained discernible.
The first ship-load containing the 700-year group arrived on Earth about 600,000 B. C., some 250,000 years after the first great cataclysm which rent the continent of Atlantis. With it came the future Masters, Mars and Mercury and others, and Mars was born in the north in the Tlavatli sub-race, with Surya and Mercury for his father and mother. Herakles was also in the family, as an elder sister. Surya was the Chief of the tribe, and Mars, his eldest son, soon became its foremost warrior.1 At the age of fifteen, he was left for dead on a battle¬ field, but was searched for and found by his sister, who was passionately devoted to him, and who nursed him back to health. He succeeded his father as Chief, and had his first experience of earthly rule.
There was one quite small but interesting group, only 105 in number, who arrived about the same period, 600,000 B. C., but who did not come from the Moon. It was a contingent arranged for special¬ ly by the Head of the Hierarchy, and seemed to consist of some who in Venus had been pet
1 See the Proem for these and other names.
16
114 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
animals of the Lords of the Flame, and were so strongly linked to Them by affection, that without Them they would not have evolved. They had individualised on Venus, and were brought over here, and He placed them all in the first and second Rays. There were other small groups, abnormal in evolution. Thus one little group, be¬ longing to the third Round, was sent over to Mercury, for the special treatment possible under Mercury conditions, and was then brought back here. Some underwent treatment of this kind in prepara¬ tion for the fifth Root Race. It may be noted that H. P. Blavatsky speaks of some who came to the Earth from Mercury.
Herakles’ third birth on earth was in the same tribe, in which many members of the group were re-united. They had a certain amount of civilisa¬ tion, but the houses were mere huts, and — the climate being warm — the clothing was scanty. The life was marked by the re-knitting of the undesirable link with Scorpio, and has therefore a certain importance for those concerned. The tribe in which Herakles was a warrior was attacked by a very savage tribe to which Scorpio belonged ; the plan of the latter was to surprise the other tribe and slaughter it as a sacrifice to their deity, or, failing that, to commit suicide, and thereby gain power to torment their enemies from the other world. They performed magical rites of an Obeah- like nature, which, though done in secret, seem to have become known to Herakles. The final suicide was essential to the success of the whole plan of after-death activity, and the weird spells, with
THE FOURTH ROOT RACE
115
many tremendous ‘curses and swears/ became then effective : the result of these was apparently as much dreaded by their foes as it was valued by themselves. The attack failed, and they proceeded to carry out the alternative to victory, a general suicide with gruesome rites. Herakles, partly be¬ cause his religion did not permit suicide, partly moved by superstitious fears, and partly by the thought that the savages would make nice brawny slaves, interfered and saved a number of them whom he captured and bound. Later on these folk plotted to assassinate him, and he had them exe¬ cuted ; thus began again, this time on earth, a long series of antagonisms not yet exhausted.
It may be noted, as bearing on the closeness of ties set up between individuals and enduring for hundreds of lives, that from this time forward a set of persons within the large groups of 1,200- and 700-years’ people — a set which we may, for the sake of distinction, dub ‘ the Clan ’ — while visiting almost every country in the world, kept generally together, and Sirius, especially, was rarely found to marry outside this little group. Taking a bird’s-eye-view, we notice that there were occa¬ sional gatherings of the whole big Clan, as in the City of the Golden Gates when Mars was King, in Peru when he was Emperor, in the mainland near the White Island under the Manu, and in the second and third sub-races at their beginnings and their migrations — to take a few instances out of many. Herakles turned out to be a fighting sort of person, clinging closely to Mars; Sirius a more peaceful one, following Mercury continually; Alcyone
116 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
is also of that ilk, with Mizar. A good many belonging to the larger groups with whom we were very familiar in those early days, however, seem to have dropped out by the way, and we
have not met them in this life ; some may be
just now in the heaven-world. The Theosophical Society is another instance of the gathering of this same Clan, and people are coming into it all the time, who turn out to be old friends. Some again, like Corona, are just now awaiting a favourable opportunity for incarnation.
The ship-loads continued to come in for a long time, only ceasing with the catastrophe of 75,000 B. C., so the phrase as to shutting the door evi¬ dently applies only to the animals coming up into humanity, and not to those whose causal bodies
were already developed. The anthropoid apes,
of whom H. P. Blavatsky spoke as still admis¬ sible to human bodies, would belong to the animal kingdom of the Moon, not to that of the Earth ; they took up bodies produced by the “ sin of the mindless,” and are the gorillas, chimpanzees, orang-utangs, baboons, and gibbons. They might be looked for in Africa, and might incarnate there in the still existing very low human races of Lemurian type.
Coming down to 220,000 B. C., to the City of the Golden Gates, we find Mars there ruling as Emperor, and bearing by inheritance the title of ‘ Divine Ruler,5 transmitted from Those who had ruled in the past, the great Initiates of earlier days. Mer¬ cury was the chief Hierophant, the head of the State religion. It is remarkable how these two
THE FOURTH ROOT RACE
117
come down together through the ages, one always the Ruler, the Warrior, the other always the Teacher, the Priest. Noteworthy also is the fact that we never saw Mars in a woman’s body, whereas Mercury did take one from time to time.
There was quite a gathering of the Clan at this time. The Crown Prince was then Vajra, and Ulysses, who had been a successful leader on the frontier, was Captain of the Imperial Guard. This Guard formed a picked body of men, even the privates being of the upper classes, and they had charge of the Palace ; they were not supposed to go out to war, but rather to strut about in gorge¬ ous uniforms, to attend on the person of the Monarch during ceremonials, and increase his splendour. Later, however, after the death of Ulysses, Vajra became Captain of the Guard, and he persuad¬ ed his father to allow him to take his troop off into a campaign ; being always a turbulent and restless person, he was not content to lead a life of show and luxury, and his soldiers, who adored him for his dash and courage, were willing enough to exchange their golden breastplates for the severer armament of war. Among them we find a number of our Clan : Herakles was there, with Pindar, Beatrix, Gemini, Capella, Lutetia, Bellona, Apis, Arcor, Capricorn, Theodoros, Scotus and Sappho. Herakles had as servant-boys three Tlavatli youths, captured in battle by his father and given to him — Hygeia, Bootes, and Alcmene. The soldiers were distinctly rowdy, indulging in orgies of eating and drinking, and then rioting about the city ; but they had the merit of respecting learning, paid
118
MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
reverence to the priests, and attended religious
ceremonies as part of their Palace duty. They had
a certain code of honour among themselves and kept it very rigidly, and in this was included the protection of the weak. Their homes were not unrefined, after a fashion, though not squaring with modern ideas.
The death of Ulysses, the Captain of the Guard, must not be passed by unnoticed, for it linked in indissoluble bonds the three persons chiefly con¬ cerned. The Emperor Mars had placed in the
Captain’s hands the care of his son Vajra, a dar¬ ing, reckless lad ; for the times were dangerous,
conspiracies were rife in the Golden City, and the capture of the person of the Crown Prince would have been a great triumph for the conspirators. Hence Ulysses would not allow the Prince to leave the Palace grounds, much to that young man’s dis¬ gust. One day the Captain and the Prince were sitting at some little distance from the Palace, and a band of conspirators, greatly daring, crept up under the shelter of some bushes, and suddenly pounced upon the two. The Prince was struck down senseless, but Ulysses, bestriding his body, fought fiercely against the assailants, shouting for help. His cries were heard, and as he fell bleed¬ ing across the body of his young master, pierced by many wounds, some soldiers of the Guard came rushing up, and the conspirators took to their heels. The two unconscious bodies were lifted on to stretchers, carried to the Throne-room of the Palace, where the Emperor was sitting, and there laid at his feet. The dying Captain raised his eyes to his Emperor : “ Sire, forgive ; I did my best.”
THE FOURTH ROOT RACE
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The Emperor stooped down, and dipped his finger in the blood welling up from the Captain’s breast ; he touched with it the forehead of the dying man, his own forehead and his feet, and musically his voice fell upon the silence : “ By the blood that was shed for me and mine, the bond between us shall never be broken. Depart in peace, faithful servant and friend.”
The words reached the ears already becoming dull; Ulysses smiled, and died. The young Prince, who was only stunned, revived. And the bond last¬ ed on, millennium after millennium, and became the bond between Master and disciples, for ever unbreakable.
The lives of Herakles were not remarkable in any way for a long time. They were spent in fighting, when the body was that of a man, in having very numerous babies when it was that of a woman.
The spread of black magic in Atlantis led up to the second great catastrophe of 200,000 B. C., which left as remnants of the great continent which had joined Europe and Africa to America the huge islands of Ruta and Daitya. They endured until the catastrophe of 75,025 B. C.1 overwhelmed them beneath the waters of the ocean we now call the Atlantic.
During the next hundred thousand years, the people of Atlantis flourished abundantly, and built up a mighty, but over-luxurious, civilisation. Its centre was in the City of the Golden Gates — the name was preserved — but it spread far and wide over the world, both over Africa and the West. Unhappily with the civilisation spread again also
1 Usually given roughly as the 80,000 B. C. catastrophe.
120 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
the knowledge giving control over nature which, used for selfish purposes, becomes black magic.
Members of the Clan came into it, more or less, sometimes being born into families immersed in it, and breaking away ; sometimes dallying with it and being a little tarred therewith. Some ex¬ periences of Alcyone’s that often tormented him in the form of dreams in a later life may here be put on record.1 They happened in a life that oc¬ curred about 100,000 B. C., Corona was then the White Emperor at the City of the Golden Gates; Mars was a general under him, and Herakles was the wife of Mars. A great rebellion was being plotted, and a man of strange and evil knowledge, — a c Lord of the Dark Face,’ leagued with the dark Earth-Spirits who form the ‘Kingdom of Pan,’ the semi-human, semi-animal creatures who are the originals of the Greek satyrs — was gradually gather¬ ing round himself a huge army which followed him as Emperor, the Emperor of the Midnight Sun, the Dark Emperor, set over against the White. The worship he established, with himself as central idol — huge images of himself being placed in the temples — was sensual and riotous, holding men through the gratification of their animal passions. Against the White Cave of Initiation in the City of the Golden Gates was set up the Dark Cave in which the mysteries of Pan, the Earth-God, were celebrated. All was working up toward another great catastrophe.
Alcyone, some one hundred and twenty lives back, was the son of a man who followed the hideous
1 See ‘ Rents in the Veil of Time,’ The Theosofrhist, May, 1910.
THE FOURTH ROOT RACE
121
rites of this dark cult, but he held himself much aloof, shrinking from the wild orgies of animalism that enchained the bulk of the worship¬ pers. But, as is too often the case, he fell into the trap baited by a woman’s beauty, and met a grievous fate. The story may be told, as it throws light on the conditions which brought down later upon Atlantis the heavy doom pronounced by the Occult Hierarchy.
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