The Jurassic Period and the Sons of Mind:

The 100 year period of the triangle of Leo, Capricorn, and Pisces 1875-1975 EA 538.

These three constellations are: Leo, Capricorn and Pisces. These are curiously and most mysteriously related to the fourth kingdom in nature and therefore to the evolution and the destiny of the human family.

This relation and intensification of vibration occurred [also]: At the time of the coming of the Sons of Mind to the Earth during the Lemurian age. EA 538.

The Sons of Mind, of Venusian origin. EA 188.

As far as the evolution of manas in this round is concerned its highest efflorescence may be looked for during the next five hundred years. TCF 499.

The evolution of humanity upon this planet about 18 million years ago, during the middle of the Lemurian, or third root race. LOM 355.

The Sun was in Sagittarius when the first human tendencies struggled to the fore. The stage of animal man was completed and when Sagittarius was dominant (from our planetary standpoint - I am using words with care) the great event of individualization took place. But the brain of the then human being failed to register what had happened. In the words of the Old Commentary:

"The sons of God shot forth like arrows from the bow. The forms received the impulse and lo! a God was born. The tiny babe knew not the great event."

The fourth active constellation was Gemini. EA 538.

At the time of the coming in of the lords of flame, an occult 100-year cycle commencing with the emerging energy of Gemini. This intensification of vibration enabled the individualized recognition of either sex. A councious recognition of gender was registered. Leo brought full self conciousness of "I am." JPC.

The Separation of the Sexes in the early third root-race, the Lemurian. The same historical fact is hinted at also in the Bible in Genesis VI, 2:4.

"They (the sexes) had already separated before the ray of divine reason had enlightened the dark region of their hitherto slumbering minds. TCF 563.

This took place twenty-one million years ago. Cycles passed and when at a later date the sun was in Leo (approximately eighteen million years ago) the first instances of coordination between brain and mind took place and the human being was definitely self-conscious. He registered his individuality. The figures for the first date (though exactness is not possible in a system of mutation such as ours) are 21,688,345 years ago. These figures are useless at this time for they can neither be proved correct nor incorrect. Later investigation will prove their usefulness, when the nature of time is better understood. Sagittarius governs human evolution, for it symbolizes progress towards a conscious goal. Leo governs the human consciousness in the human kingdom for the energy pouring through it enables man to say "I am". 

There is naught known about the races of men who lived those millions of years ago; naught is known of the civilization which flourished in early Atlantean times twelve million years ago; naught is known at all of the still more ancient Lemurian civilization which goes back more than fifteen million years; still less is known of that twilight period which existed twenty-one million years ago when men were scarcely human and when they were so closely related to the animal kingdom that we call them by the cumbersome name of "animal-man." EH 226.

The third kingdom of nature, the animal kingdom, had reached a relatively high state of evolution, and animal man was in possession of the earth; he was a being with a powerful physical body, a coordinated astral body, or body of sensation and feeling, and a rudimentary germ of mind which might some day form a nucleus of a mental body. Left to himself for long aeons animal man would have eventually progressed out of the animal kingdom into the human, and would have become a self-conscious, functioning, rational entity, but how slow the process would have been may be evidenced by the study of the bushmen of South Africa, the Veddhas of Ceylon, and the hairy Ainus. IHS 31.

The relation of the animals to man has been purely physical in the long past ages. Animals preyed upon men in the days when animal-man was but little removed from them. It is oft forgotten that there was a stage in human development when animal-man and the existent forms of animal life lived in a much closer relation than today. Then, only the fact of individualization separated them.

It was, however, an individualization so little realized that the difference between the mindless animal (so-called) and infant humanity was scarcely appreciable. In those distant aeons, much transpired which has been lost in the dark silence of the past. The animal world was then far more potent than the human, men were helpless before the onslaughts of the animals, and the devastation wrought by animals upon early animal-men in mid-Lemurian days was terrible and appalling. Little nomadic groups of human beings would be completely wiped out, age after age, by the powerful animal life of the period, and though instinct taught the animal-men to take certain precautions, it was an instinct but little removed from that found in their enemies.

It was only as the millennia of years passed away, and human intelligence and cunning began to assert themselves, that humanity became more powerful than the animals and in its turn devastated the animal kingdom. Up until two hundred years ago the toll of life exacted by the animal world from the human, in the forests of the western continents, in Africa, in the primeval lands of Australia and in the islands of the tropic seas, was incalculable. This is a fact often forgotten in the sentimentality of a moment, but it lies at the root of man's cruelty to animals. EP1 256.

The Fall of man into generation occurred during the earliest portion of what science calls the Mesozoic times, or the age of the reptiles. SD2 204.

The early Third produced the monsters, great beasts and evil forms. They prowled upon the surface of the sphere. Stanza of Dzyan. TCF 29.

The Jurassic period, or the middle of the so-called "Reptilian" age (when the Third Race appeared), up to the Miocene, when the bulk of the Fourth Race was submerged? SD2 156.

Either the early Secondary, or the Primary ages of geology. The secondary or "Reptilian" SD2 157.

Pterodactyls and Plesiosauri ceased to exist with the bulk of the Third Race. SD2 207.

The animals of the first ray are no longer in existence on earth. EP1 164.

The waters came and swept away the progenitors of the fluidic spawn. Stanza of Dyzan. TCF 29.

Exoteric scientific dating is inaccurate and it must be remembered that the fall into individualization of the third race happened in the Jurassic period or second third of the Mesozoic era. So forget compemperary scientific dating and accounting of cave men below and let the imagination carry you through the descriptive account. JPC.

Mesozoic ("Middle Life") Era:

This is the second of three geologic eras squeezed into the Phanerozoic ("Evident Life") Eon that covers the last 10% of Earth's whole geologic history. This is the era we all think of when we imagine the Ancient Earth! Rampaging dinosaurs! Dive-bombing pterodactyls! Endless forests of giant ferns! Erupting Volcanoes! (Sorry, no cave men! They didn't show up until the end of the Cenozoic.)

The Mesozoic Era lasted about 180 million years, from about 245 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. The Mesozoic is divided into just three time periods: the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous. Since lots of things were going on in each time period, we can only summarize the events. You can learn more by going to your library or searching the Internet for words like "Mesozoic" or the names of each of the periods.

In the view above, we see Earth in the middle of the Jurassic Period, in mid-Mesozoic times (sort of a middle-middle view). The supercontinents Gondwanaland and Laurasia collided some time back to form a single super-super continent called Pangea ("All-Earth"). But plate tectonics continues its irresistible motions, and even as we look, Pangea is beginning to break up into the continents we know now. At upper left, North America is just breaking away from the northwest coast of Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico are beginning to form. The Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States are a high, rugged mountain range, something like the Rocky Mountains of today. Over the next fifty million years or so, South America, India, and Antarctica will all break away from Africa and move toward their present positions.

Life is diversifying rapidly, and beginning to look familiar. The dominant animals on both land and sea are reptiles, the most famous of which are the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs began in the Triassic, spread during the Jurassic, and dominated Earth in the Cretaceous. They are so prominent that the Mesozoic is also called "The Age of Reptiles." But dinosaurs are not the only life form around: birds and mammals also appear during the Mesozoic, as well as deciduous trees and flowering plants.

The climate during the Mesozoic is warm; so warm that there are no ice caps at all, even at the poles! Plants grow like crazy in the warmth and moisture, so there is food everywhere for your average hungry 50-ton Ultrasaurus! So what happened to this Dino Paradise? More change! A mass extinction like those in the Paleozoic ended the idyllic Mesozoic Era (if you can call dodging your friendly local T-Rex as idyllic). More than half of all existing life forms disappeared, including virtually all of the dinosaurs. Why? There are many hypotheses, including disease, volcanic eruptions, and giant impacts. www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/mesozoic.html

The Devonian, with its predominance of fish and first appearance of reptiles; the Mesozoic with its batrachians (or frog family); the Secondary formations, in which reptiles of the sea, land and air preponderated, and the first humble forms of vertebrate land animals began to appear; and finally, the Tertiary, in which mammalian life has become abundant, and type succeeding to type and species to species, are gradually differentiated and specialized, through the Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene periods, until we arrive at the Glacial and Pre-historic periods, and at positive proof of the existence of man.

The same order, plus the description of animals unknown to modern science, is found in the commentaries on the Puranas in general, and in the Book of Dzyan -- especially. SD2 293.

The early Third produced the monsters, great beasts and evil forms. They prowled upon the surface of the sphere.
   
The watery Fourth produced within the watery sphere, reptiles and spawn of evil fame, the product of their karma. The waters came and swept away the progenitors of the fluidic spawn.
   
The separating Fifth built in the rupa sphere the concrete forms of thought. They cast them forth. They peopled the lower four, and like a black and evil cloud shut out the light of day. The higher three were hid. Stanza of Dzyan. TCF 29.

Having passed through all the kingdoms of nature in the previous three Rounds, his physical frame -- one adapted to the thermal conditions of those early periods -- was ready to receive the divine Pilgrim at the first dawn of human life, i.e., 18,000,000 years ago. It is only at the mid-point of the 3rd Root Race that man was endowed with Manas. SD2 293.

Titans -- men of a superhuman tremendous physical power, which enabled them to defend themselves, and hold at bay the gigantic monsters of the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic times. SD2 293.

The watery Fourth produced within the watery sphere, reptiles and spawn of evil fame, the product of their karma. The waters came and swept away the progenitors of the fluidic spawn. Stanza of Dyzan. TCF 29.

The reader is asked to bear in mind that when we speak of "animals," the mammalians alone are meant. Crustacea, fishes, and reptiles are contemporary with, and most have preceded physical man in this Round. All were bisexual, however, before the age of mammalia in the closing portion of the secondary or Mesozoic ages, yet nearer to the Palaeozoic than the Cenozoic ages. Smaller marsupial mammalia are contemporary with the huge reptilian monsters of the Secondary. SD2 504.

Physical man, we say, existed before the first bed of the Cretaceous rocks was deposited. In the early part of the Tertiary Age, the most brilliant civilization the world has ever known flourished at a period when the Haeckelian man-ape is conceived to have roamed through the primeval forests.

The Tertiary age began 15 million of years ago.  A more correct calculation, according to Esoteric doctrine. SD2 265.

The Lemuro-Atlantean:

The esoteric teaching which tells us of Man having had in the Third Round a GIGANTIC APE-LIKE FORM on the astral plane. And similarly at the close of the Third Race in this Round. Thus it accounts for the human features of the apes. SD2 228.

The black and yellow gigantic Lemuro-Atlantean. SD1 184.

The man who preceded the Fourth, the Atlantean race, however much he may have looked physically like a "gigantic ape" -- "the counterfeit of man who hath not the life of a man" -- was still a thinking and already a speaking man. The "Lemuro-Atlantean" was a highly civilized race, and if one accepts tradition, which is better history than the speculative fiction which now passes under that name, he was higher than we are with all our sciences and the degraded civilization of the day: at any rate, the Lemuro-Atlantean of the closing Third Race was so. SD1 191.

The Hottentots, they are of indirect Lemuro-Atlantean descent. SD2 779.

The name 'Hottentot' is derived from a Dutch word meaning 'stammerer'; it was applied to Southern Africa's Khoikhoi people as early as the 17th century, apparently in reference to the Khoikhoi and Khoisan (a related people, often referred to as 'Bushmen' language, which is distinguished by clicking sounds. Unlike Bantu groups such as the Zulu, the Khoisan-speaking peoples are small of stature and have a Yellow-Tan complexion. social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/DEBCLASS/hotten.htm

The "Language of Animals" is obviously Inner African. It is employed especially by the Bushmen and Hottentots. The clicks of the Pygmies, the San (Bushmen), the Khoi-Khoi (Hottentots), and the Kaffirs constitute a living link betwixt the human beginner and his predecessor. Ancient Egypt. Gerald Massey.

Hottentot women, peculiarities of: compression of nose by. Decent Of Man. Charles Darwin.

The Hottentot language is said to have affinities with the Hamitic tongues, from which it is separated by the whole breadth of Bantu-speaking Central Africa. A Hottentot-like language with Bushman affinities is still spoken in equatorial East Africa, and this strengthens the idea that the whole of East Africa was once Hamitic-speaking. The Bantu languages and peoples spread, in comparatively recent times, from some centre of origin in West Central Africa and cut off the Hottentots from the other Hamitic peoples. But it is at least equally probable that the Hottentot is a separate language group. Among other remote and isolated little patches of language are the Papuan speech of New Guinea and the native Australian. The now extinct Tasmanian language is but little known. What we do know of it is in support of what we have guessed about the comparative speechlessness of Pal olithic man. Outline Of History. H G Wells.

The Ethnologist tells us that the lowest peoples of the earth are the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego, the Hottentots, a number of little-understood peoples in Central Africa, the wild Veddahs of Ceylon, the (extinct) Tasmanians, the Aetas in the interior of the Philippines, and certain fragments of peoples on islands of the Indian Ocean. Story Of Evolution. Joseph McCabe.

The Secret Doctrine teaches that the specific unity of mankind is not without exceptions even now. For there are, or rather still were a few years ago, descendants of these half-animal tribes or races, both of remote Lemurian and Lemuro-Atlantean origin. The world knows them as Tasmanians (now extinct), Australians, Andaman Islanders, etc. The descent of the Tasmanians can be almost proved by a fact, which struck Darwin a good deal, without his being able to make anything of it. This fact deserves notice. SD2 195.

When Tasmania was first colonised the natives were roughly estimated by some at 7000 and by others at 20,000.  Their number was soon greatly reduced, chiefly by fighting with the English and with each other.  After the famous hunt by all the colonists, when the remaining natives delivered themselves up to the government, they consisted only of 120 individuals ( All the statements here given are taken from 'The Last of the Tasmanians,' by J. Bonwick, 1870.), who were in 1832 transported to Flinders Island. 

This island, situated between Tasmania and Australia, is forty miles long, and from twelve to eighteen miles broad:  it seems healthy, and the natives were well treated.  Nevertheless, they suffered greatly in health.  In 1834 they consisted (Bonwick, p. 250) of forty-seven adult males, forty-eight adult females, and sixteen children, or in all of 111 souls.  In 1835 only one hundred were left.  As they continued rapidly to decrease, and as they themselves thought that they should not perish so quickly elsewhere, they were removed in 1847 to Oyster Cove in the southern part of Tasmania. 

They then consisted (Dec. 20th, 1847) of fourteen men, twenty-two women and ten children.  (38.  This is the statement of the Governor of Tasmania, Sir W. Denison, 'Varieties of Vice-Regal Life,' 1870, vol. i. p. 67.)  But the change of site did no good.  Disease and death still pursued them, and in 1864 one man (who died in 1869), and three elderly women alone survived.  The infertility of the women is even a more remarkable fact than the liability of all to ill-health and death.  At the time when only nine women were left at Oyster Cove, they told Mr. Bonwick (p. 386), that only two had ever borne children:  and these two had together produced only three children! Decent Of Man. Charles Darwin.

The aboriginal Tasmanians, who died out about forty years ago, were of great evolutionary interest. It is sometimes said that man is distinguished from all other animals by the possession of abstract ideas, but the very imperfect speech of the Tasmanians expressed no abstract ideas. Their mind seems to have been in an intermediate stage of development. They never made fire, and, like the other surviving fragments of early humanity, they had no tribal organisation, and no ideas of religion or morality. Story Of Evolution. Joseph McCabe.

To search for the "Missing Link" is useless. To the scientists of the closing sixth Root-race, millions and millions of years hence, our modern races, or rather their fossils, will appear as those of small insignificant apes -- an extinct species of the genus homo. SD1 184.

The Quaternary is sometimes called the 'age of man'. From a theosophical viewpoint, while it is true that our own fifth root-race or humanity rose to dominance during this period, recognizably human beings, with self-conscious minds, emerged over 18 million years ago in the Mesozoic.

The earth's history is divided into a series of geological periods, whose boundaries are often marked by geological convulsions, biological extinctions, and the sudden development of new species. According to theosophy, sedimentation in the present, fourth round of the earth's evolution began in the Laurentian period, towards the close of the Precambrian era, about 320 million years ago (corresponding 'scientific' date: about 640 million years). This was followed by the Paleozoic era (the age of trilobites and fishes), which began with a rapid and unprecedented proliferation of marine organisms (the 'Cambrian explosion'), and ended with the greatest extinction event in earth history. It was followed by the Mesozoic era (the age of reptiles), and then the Cenozoic era (the age of mammals). The main theosophical and scientific dates are given below:

Paleozoic: began about 240 million years ago (science: 540 million) Divided into: Cambrian, Silurian, Ordovician, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian

Mesozoic: began about 44 million years ago (science: 245 million) Divided into: Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous

Cenozoic: began about 8 million years ago (science: 66.4 million) Divided into: Tertiary (subdivisions: Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene); Quaternary (subdivisions: Pleistocene, Holocene)

The Quaternary period began with the Pleistocene ice age, about 870,000 years ago (science: 1.6 million), which ended with the extinction of many species of large mammals around 10,000 years ago, during the transition to the Holocene or Recent epoch. Age Of Earth. David Pratt. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/age.htm

Destruction/Extinction of the Dinosaurs:

I have used these references to indicate a theory that the Elephant is on the 1st sub ray of the second ray. Inferentially we can take it perhaps that the dinosours had only dynamic will in its destructive/destroyer mode without the balance of intelligence or love in its least degree, a disaster indeed. JPC.

The animals of the first ray are no longer in existence on earth. EP1 164.

The waters came and swept away the progenitors of the fluidic spawn. Dyzan. TCF 29.

Elephants are upon the first ray. EP1 260.

The elephant is said to stand at the head of the second ray type of animal. EP1 164.

When the animal kingdom, viewing it from the angle of the whole and not from the angle of species, had reached a particular stage of development, then there was an inrush into the planetary life of the energy of all the seven rays simultaneously. This occurs very rarely and the tremendous stimulation then undergone by the sensitive forms of life (and of these the animal was at that time the most sensitive), produced the emergence of a new form, that of infant humanity. It was the reaction of that kingdom, as expressed through its indwelling life, the animal Being (who is the informing Life of that kingdom in nature), which produced individualization in the more advanced animal-man of the time. The statements found in occult books that dogs and other animals responded to the divine impulse through an activity of the will or of love, may be symbolic in nature, but are not correct literally, as so many devout occult students may think. Such specific forms of life did not exist in those far off times, particularly upon the moon chain. The consideration of species and of types may not be permitted; it is futile and a waste of time. EP2 213.

At the third outpouring, (in which the fourth kingdom, the human, was formed), it was this Law of Magnetic Control that effected the juncture of astro-animal man, and the descending Monad, using the spark of mind as the method of at-one-ment. TCF 384.

The coming in of the lords of flame. That is, for the coming in of the sons of mind during the Lemurian period this event which produced much destruction of animal forms. DK states that there are no longer any animals of the first ray on earth. We might well ponder upon the 'impress' of the first ray as the will aspect relating to the incoming of manas at individualization. The first ray brought destruction of forms suddenly terminating for instance the age of the reptiles or the dinosaurs, with the aid of the fifth ray of mentality which brought cataclysmic electrical storms and floods of chaos, disaster and destruction. JPC.

The waters came and swept away the progenitors of the fluidic spawn. Dyzan. TCF 29.

The impress to be set by the first Ray upon our human family on this globe might be considered as threefold:

First. At human individualization in the middle of the third root-race. This was produced by a vast destruction of the forms we call animal-man. This point has seldom been brought out in teaching. The advent of the Lords of the Flame, the electrical storm which ushered in the period of man, was distinguished by disaster, chaos, and the destruction of many in the third kingdom of nature. The spark of mind was implanted and the strength of its vibration, and the immediate effect of its presence caused the death of the animal form, thus producing the immediate possibility of the newly vitalized causal bodies vibrating to such purpose that new physical vehicles were taken. That was the Will aspect manifesting in the fourth round in connection with the human family. TCF 425.

The power or electrical radiation of the fifth Logos will again be strongly felt, for it is His round, and just as He was largely responsible for the manasic stimulation of animal man in the third root-race. TCF 435.

The separating Fifth built in the rupa sphere the concrete forms of thought. They cast them forth. They peopled the lower four, and like a black and evil cloud shut out the light of day. The higher three were hid. Dyzan. TCF 29.

The electrical storm. Disaster, chaos, and the destruction of many in the third kingdom:

Who Died? How does the K-T extinction compare to this debacle? Well, about 60% of all species that are present below the K-T boundary are not present above the line that divides the "Age of Dinosaurs" and the "Age of Mammals." In fact, dinosaurs were not among the most numerous of the casualties — the worst hit organisms were those in the oceans. Large groups of organisms, including some members of Foraminifera, Echinodermata, Mollusca, and the marine Diapsida all were devastated by the K-T event. On land, the Dinosauria of course went extinct, along with the Pterosauria. Mammals and most non- dinosaurian reptiles seemed to be relatively unaffected. The terrestrial plants suffered to a large extent, except for the ferns, which show an apparently dramatic increase in diversity at the K-T boundary, a phenomenon known as the fern spike. www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/extinction.html

There have been many mass extinctions throughout the history of the Earth. Probably the most famous is the extinction that finally saw the end of the dinosaurs reign on the Earth, 65 million years ago. It wasn't just the dinosaurs that died out in this extinction. Whatever caused the death of the dinosaurs also caused the death of around 70% of all of the species on the Earth.

Trillions of tons of debris (dust, gases and water vapour) would have been thrown into the atmosphere when the object vaporized. Many enormous tidal waves would be started causing even more damage, the evidence of such waves has been found all the way round the Gulf of Mexico. Along with the tidal waves the blast would also start a chain reaction of earthquakes and volcanic activity there would have also been very high winds caused by the blast. In the days and weeks following the impact the cloud of debris would have been carried over large distances by the post blast high winds. This will have caused months of darkness and a decrease in global temperatures. After this there would have been an increase in temperatures caused by the large amounts of CO2 released by what would have been global fires. Eventually this would cause chemical reactions that would result in the formation of acid rains.

On the land the effects of the impact on the flora and fauna would have been devastating, especially on the large animals which would need large food supplies and on the dinosaurs which would need sun light to keep warm. The global fires would have destroyed considerable amounts of vegetation (by the analysis of the soot in the K-T boundary it is estimated that 25% of the vegetation cover was destroyed), the immediate effect of this would have resulted in the death of the large herbivores. A knock on effect of this would have killed off the large carnivores. Only the small active scavengers, like birds and mammals with the ability to find food from a wide range of sources would have survived. Analysis of the K-T boundary fossils shows that there was a short term takeover of the land by the hardy ferns, which moved into the areas were there had been fires.

In the sea the effects would have been just as dramatic. There would have been a decrease in the oxygen levels in the seawater as low oxygen deep seawater would have been brought up by massive under water currents. This would have resulted in a massive disturbance of the marine food chain through the death of much of the plankton. This would have resulted in the eventual death of the marine reptiles which would have relied on the food chain. There would also have been a massive death rate amongst the shelled sea animals like the ammonites. There could also have been a serious increase in the acidity of the seas caused by the acid rains. This may have also killed off some of the sea species.

The period of recovery would have seen the surviving species moving into the ecological niches left vacant by the dead species. After a short period of time some of the plants that had been burnt down would have regrown from buried seeds or rootstock. As is common with all mass extinctions there would have a sudden evolutionary burst as new species developed. The age of the mammals was beginning. web.ukonline.co.uk/a.buckley/dino.htm

This was the birth hour of the human soul. EXT 438.

In Lemurian times, the third divine aspect, that of Intelligence, was invoked by the mass appeal of instinctual animal-man; he little knew what that almost inchoate appeal would invoke. Light appeared on Earth and true progressive enlightenment became possible. I am not here referring to physical light, but to the light of the intellect. DINA2 160.

Animal man was conscious on the physical, and on the astral planes. By the stimulation effected by the electric rod this animal man awoke to consciousness on the mental. Thus the three bodies were coordinated, and the Thinker enabled to function in them. TCF 348.

The fire of mind shone forth and illuminated animal man in Lemurian days, during that vast cycle wherein sight opened up for him the physical plane. The relationship between sight and mind is a very close one, and must not be lost from sight. In the first round, and in the first root-race of this round, hearing was the sense developed. In the second round and the second root-race touch was evolved. In the third round and corresponding root-race sight was added to the other two, and the Self which hears, and the Not-self which is touched, or apprehended as tangible, are related and connected by sight, - the correspondence to the intelligence that links. TCF 315.

Man has learnt to use the physical eye and to find his way, by its means, around and through his environment. The stage in human evolution wherein he learnt first to "see" lies far behind, but when man saw and could focus and direct his course by sight, it marked a stupendous unfoldment and his first real entrance upon the Path of Light. Ponder on this. It has also interior repercussions and was indeed the result of an invocative interplay between inner centers of power and the groping creature in the phenomenal world.

...as drastic and important a nature as the attaining of physical sight and the use of the physical eye was in the unfoldment of the curious creature which antedated the most primitive animal man. DINA 292.

In Lemurian days, during the early period of animal man and before humanity appeared on earth, in the interim period of development, eight signs influenced the planet and the kingdoms of nature found upon it. There was no response to the influences of Leo and Virgo. The mystery of the Sphinx did not exist and these two signs were not then part of the zodiacal wheel. Then individualization took place and the seed of Christhood was planted in man and these two signs began to influence humanity, and gradually that influence was recognized and the zodiac was then known to have ten signs. The Mutable Cross dominated, but it was then the Tau, for Pisces was lacking and only Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius were evidenced. Aries to Capricorn marked the circle of experience. EA 160.

Those of you who have studied The Secret Doctrine will remember that in that momentous period wherein animal-man made the great transition into the human family and humanity came into being, developing the germ of individuality, the seed of self-consciousness and embryo intellect, we are told that this event was brought about in three ways:    

The seed of mind was implanted in some of the aspiring animal-men by the Hierarchy, and these animal men became human beings, of a very low order to be sure, but still men. They were "sparked," if I might so express it, and a point of light appeared where before there was none. Before there was only a diffused atomic light but no central point of light within the head, and no indication of the higher centers. These individuals, along with the more advanced humanity which came to the planet in Atlantean times (having individualized elsewhere), constitute the most advanced humanity of our present period. They represent culture and understanding, no matter where it is found, or in what class or race.     

The instinctual nature of animal-man (found active among those who had not reached the stage of any conscious aspiration) was suddenly stimulated or vitalized by the coming into expression of the first group and the directed attention of the Hierarchy, working under the ancient Law that "energy follows thought." Thus gradually, with a remarkable rapidity, instinct became blended into, or resolved into, its higher expression - the intellect. Thus in due course of time a large group of animal-men became human beings. They today represent civilization and the masses of ordinary intelligent people, educated under the mass systems of the present time, able occasionally to think and rise to mental emergencies, yet not highly cultured. They constitute the so-called general public which we designate by the words "upper and lower middle class" people, the professional classes and the bourgeoisie everywhere.     

At the same time there is to be found a vast number of people who are human beings but who are not the result of either of these two processes. They are the product of the slow moving influences of life itself, of what we are apt to call the evolutionary urge, innate in matter itself. They have painfully and with infinitely slow processes evolved out of the animal condition into that of human beings, with an awakening conscience, an urge to betterment, and an embryonic mind of such a nature that it can respond to simple educational processes, when available, and is so responding. They are the illiterate masses, the still savage races and the low grade human beings who are met with in their millions on our planet. EXT 49.

There are two points to remember in connection with these seed groups, and these are in line with, but also expansions of, analogous conditions in the "seeds" which fructified - after implantation and development - in animal-man, producing the living self-conscious individual and, in their totality, the fourth kingdom in nature. The first point has reference to the quality of the implanted seed, and the second to the method of its implantation. 

The quality of the "seed of the sons of God" which was effectual in producing the human family was intellectual, and the self-conscious self-directed man was the result. The fruit of this quality, plus the livingness of the seed itself, can be seen today in the more advanced and cultured thinking people and in those who are in any sense of the word personalities.

The method employed was the gift of mind to the more advanced among the animal-men in a majority of cases, the stimulation of the instinctual faculty in others, whilst a third method was the leaving of a minority to the ordinary course of evolution. These latter today constitute the least developed and the most backward of the races upon the Earth. They are, in fact, a very small number indeed. EXT 98.

JPC. April 2006.

Jeremy Condick. jpcondick@ntlworld.com