Son en número de siete, y están íntimamente
relacionadas con la doctrina de la Cadena planetaria. Admitida la séptuple
naturaleza del hombre, cada uno de sus principales guarda relación con un
plano, un planeta y una raza. Las Razas humanas nacen la una de la otra,
crecen, se desarrollan, envejecen y mueren. Las subrazas siguen la misma
regla.
Cada Raza-madre, con sus correspondientes subrazas e
innumerables subdivisiones en familias y tribus, es enteramente distinta
de la Raza que la precede y de la que le sigue. Cada una de las siete
Razas, así como la más mínima división de ellas, se divide en cuatro
edades: de oro, de plata, de bronce y de hierro.
De las siete Razas, cinco han aparecido ya y han
completado casi su cadena terrestre; y otras dos tienen que aparecer
todavía en esta Ronda. Nuestra quinta Raza-madre existe ya como Raza sui
géneris y por completo independiente de su tronco-padre, desde hace un
millón de años; de lo cual puede inferirse que cada una de sus cuatro
subrazas precedentes ha vivido unos 210.000 años; así, cada raza-familia
tiene un promedio de existencia de unos 30.000 años; y así también la
raza-familia europea tiene aun bastante miles de años de vida, aun cuando
las naciones, o sean las innumerables espinas que hay en ella, varían con
cada "estación" sucesiva de tres o cuatro mil años. (Doctr. Secr., II,
453, 454).
La quinta Raza (la aria) es la que actualmente sigue
su curso en nuestro globo, coexistiendo con una gran parte de la cuarta
Raza (constituída por los tártaros, chinos y mongoles), y con algunos
restos de la tercera (aborígenes de la Australia y hotentotes). -El curso
de las Razas humanas corresponde a los grandes períodos de involución o
descenso, de equilibrio y de evolución o ascenso. (Véase: Cadena
planetaria).
En el período de involución, o descenso, se
desarrollaron las tres primeras Razas; en el de equilibrio se desenvolvió
la cuarta Raza, y el período de evolución o ascenso corresponde a las
Razas quinta, sexta y séptima. (Doctr. Secr., passim).
Primera Raza
- Apareció bajo la protección del Sol (o más bien
de Urano, que místicamente lo representa). Por residir la conciencia en
el plano âtmico, estas formas fueron denominadas Raza de los Dioses,
hijos del Yoga, (pues los Pitris emanaron sus sombras (chhâyâs) mientras
se hallaban entregados a la meditación), y nacidos de sí mismos, por no
haberlos procreado padres humanos. Son formas enormes, filamentosas,
proteicas y etéreas, bhûtas sin sexo, exudadas de los etéreos cuerpos de
sus progenitores. Podían estos seres estar parados, andar, correr,
volar; sin embargo, no eran más que un chhâyâ, una sombra insensible,
dotada sólo de un oído rudimentario y de una vaga conciencia del fuego.
Esta Raza se reproducía por escisión o brote; el
individuo crecía, aumentaba en tamaño, y entonces se dividía en dos
mitades iguales, al principio, y en sus últimas etapas en porciones
desiguales, de las que dimanaban seres más pequeños, que a su vez
crecían y daban origen a nueva prole. En esta primera Raza no hubo
ninguna primera subraza definida, si bien podemos indicar siete etapas
de desarrollo o cambios evolucionarios. Ninguno de estos seres podía
morir, "ni el fuego ni el agua podían destruirlos". El fuego era su
elemento.
Esta Raza residía en la primera tierra firme que
apareció en el globo, el pico del Monte Merú, el extremo del polo Norte,
el comienzo de la imperecedera Tierra Sagrada, la tierra de los devas,
llamada también Zvetadvîpa, la Isla Blanca o Tierra central, cuyo clima
era como el de una deliciosa primavera. Esta tierra ha de ser
sucesivamente la cuna de cada Raza humana bajo el Imperio de Dhruva, el
Señor de la Estrella Polar, cualquiera que sea el punto adonde haya de
dirigirse después de su nacimiento.
Segunda Raza
- Nació bajo la influencia del planeta Júpiter
(Brihaspati). Los espíritus de la Naturaleza o devas inferiores
conglomeraron en derredor de los chhâyâs (sombras) películas de materia
más densa, formando una especie de tupida envoltura externa, y lo
exterior, (el chhâyâ) de la primera Raza vino a ser lo interior (el
doble etéreo) de la segunda. Estas formas filamentosas y de brillantes
colores (amarillo de oro, anaranjado, etc.), heterogéneas en apariencia,
de figura diversa, semejaban vegetales o animales, y a menudo tenían
unos contornos semihumanos.
Flotaban en el espacio, trepaban, deslizábanse de
acá para acullá, y se llamaban con unos sonidos aflautados. La
conciencia de la Mónada en esta Raza responde débilmente a la conciencia
búddhica. Adquiere un nuevo sentido, el del tacto, respondiendo así a
las impresiones del aire y del fuego. Esta Raza ofrecía dos principales
tipos de reproducción: por expansión y brote (generación sexual), y por
medio del sudor con indicios de sexualidad, por lo que se dio a sus
individuos el nombre de andróginos latentes.
Esta Raza pasó a residir en el segundo Continente,
llamado Hiperbóreo o Plakcha, que ocupaba el actual norte de Asia, junto
con Groenlandia y la península de Kamschatka. Formaban también parte de
este continente la isla de Spitzber, Suecia y Noruega, extendiéndose por
el sudoeste hasta más allá de las Islas Británicas. La bahía de Baffin
era entonces tierra firme. El clima era tropical, y el suelo estaba
cubierto de abundante vegetación.
Tercera Raza (Lemuriana)
- Ofrece tres tipos perfectamente definidos que
designaremos con los nombres de tercera prima, tercera media y tercera
última. La tercera prima nació bajo el imperio de Zukra (Venus), gracias
a cuya influencia se desarrollaron los hermafroditas, quedando las razas
separadas bajo Lohitânga (Marte), que es la encarnación de Kâma o
naturaleza pasional. Como todas las formas entonces existentes en la
tierra, el hombre era de estatura gigantesca.
Era rojo con mucha variedad de matices; tenía la
frente deprimida, la nariz chata y las mandíbulas abultadas y salientes.
Los divinos andróginos eran de un hermoso y espléndido tinte rojo
dorado. En esta Raza se desarrolló el órgano de la visión; al principio
era un ojo único en medio de la frente (llamado más tarde tercer ojo),
que brillaba como una joya en su órbita; más adelante fueron dos ojos,
pero éstos no tuvieron completo uso hasta la tercera subraza de la
tercera Raza; y únicamente en la cuarta Raza, cuando el tercer ojo
retrocedió al interior convirtiéndose en glándula pineal, añadió el
sentido de la vista a los del oído y del tacto.
En cuanto a la conciencia, la tercera Raza, por su
contacto con Âtma-Buddhi-Manas, demostró trinidad. A la conciencia de
los contactos del fuego y del aire, añadió los del agua. El lenguaje
pasó a ser monosílabico. La reproducción era de tres tipos: en la
primera subraza se efectuaba por gotas de sudor, y apenas se distinguía
el signo sexual en el cuerpo; gradualmente apareció la generación
ovípara (tercera y cuarta subraza), produciendo seres hermafroditas al
principio, y más tarde con predominio de un solo sexo, hasta que por fin
nacieron del huevo varones y hembras; en la quinta subraza empieza el
huevo a quedar retenido en el seno materno, y nace la criatura débil y
desvalida; por último, en la sexta y séptima subrazas ya es general la
generación por ayuntamiento de sexos.
El hombre de la tercera Raza era contemporáneo del
pterodáctilo, del megalosauro y otros animales gigantescos. La cuna de
esta Raza fue la Lemuria, llamada Zâlmali en las historias antiguas.
Cuarta
Raza (Atlántica)
- Fue engendrada por la tercera Raza unos ocho
millones de años atrás, a cuyo fin el Manú de la cuarta Raza eligió de
entre la anterior los tipos más adecuados, a quienes condujo a la
imperecedera Tierra sagrada para librarlos del cataclismo lemuriano.
Nació la cuarta Raza bajo la influencia de Soma (la Luna) y de Zani
(Saturno); a la influencia de este último astro se debió en parte muy
principal el gran desarrollo de la inteligencia concreta que caracteriza
la subraza tolteca.
El lenguaje era aglutinante; pero andando el tiempo
adquirió flexión, y en esa modalidad se transmitió a la quinta Raza.
Cuna de la cuarta Raza fue el vastísimo continente de la Atlántida.
(Véase esta palabra). La inmensa mayoría de los habitantes del globo
pertenece todavía a la cuarta Raza. Las siete subrazas de ésta son:
1) la Ramoahal
2) la Tlavatli
3) la Tolteca
4) la Turania
5) la Semítica
6) la Akkadiana
7) la
Mongólica
Entre ellas merece mencionarse, por su alto grado
de civilización, la tolteca, que conocía a fondo la química, la
astronomía, la agricultura y la alquimía; estaba también muy versada en
la magia negra, gran parte de la cual tenía por instrumento el hábil
empleo de los "rayos obscuros" de la luna, o sean las emanaciones de la
porción obscura de este astro.
Quinta Raza (Aria)
- Es la actual raza blanca del globo. Se desarrolló
bajo la protección de Budha (Mercurio), pues su principal objetivo era
el desenvolvimiento de la mente, y a este fin, el planeta de la
sabiduría bañó con sus benéficos efluvios la cuna de la Raza. Hace ya un
millón de años el Manú Vaivasvata seleccionó de entre la subraza
semítica de la Raza atlántica las simientes de la quinta Raza-madre y
las condujo a la imperecedera Tierra sagrada.
Edad tras edad, fue modelando el núleo de la
humanidad futura. Allí se añadió el quinto sentido (olfato) a los otro
cuatro, quedando el hombre tal como es en el estado presente. Allí el
Manú congregó las más brillantes inteligencias y los caracteres más
puros para que renazcan en las formas que El desarrolla. Una vez que
hubo establecido el tipo de su Raza, la condujo al Asia Central, en
donde moró por largo tiempo, fijando allí la residencia de la Raza cuyos
brotes habían de ramificarse en diversas direcciones.
Esta Raza tiene las siguientes subrazas:
1) la Aria
2) la Ario-semítica
3) la Irania
4) la Céltica
5) la
Teutónica
La sexta y la séptima florecerán en el Norte y Sur
de América.
Sexta Raza
- Estará caracterizada por su desarrollo
espiritual, por la adquisición del sexto sentido, o sea la clarividencia
astral, y por sus tendencias unitarias. Poblará el continente Zâha, cuya
emersión inicial ocurrirá en el punto donde actualmente se halla la
América del Norte, que con antelación habrá sido cuarteada por
terremotos y fuegos volcánicos.
Séptima Raza
- Se caracterizará por su completo desarrollo
espiritual, por la adquisición del séptimo sentido, o sea la
clarividencia mental, y por el pleno reconocimiento de la unidad.
Florecerá en el séptimo continente, llamado Pukchara, cuyo centro ha de
estar en el punto en donde se halla actualmente la América del Sur.
Al terminar la vida geológica de este continente,
sobrevendrá el fin de nuestro globo, cayendo en apacible sueño después
del larguísimo día de trabajo y vigilia.
Root-race The main serial divisions of the
human life-wave on any globe of a planetary chain; for instance, the
root-races on our globe D include the third or Lemurian, the fourth or
Atlantean, and the present fifth. Each such root-race contains many and
various races as the word is commonly understood.
All the human beings alive today are part
of the fifth root-race. Each life-wave when it has completed its cycle of
seven root-races on one globe, transfers its life-energies to the next
globe, whereupon begins the same sequence of seven root-races on that next
globe. Thus each globe of a planetary chain has its seven root-races,
which together constitute one globe-round, the whole set of seven
globe-rounds completing one planetary round.
Root-race, First
of the fourth round on globe D of our
earth, composed of emanations of the lunar pitris produced by the
processes of chhaya-birth -- the ethereal lunar pitris emanated their
own "shadows" or vehicles, as colossal ovoid bodies of tenuous astral
substance, to us translucent, and having but rudiments or type of color.
They were spiritual and ethereal within, and more condensedly ethereal
outwardly, as yet possessing latent but not active intelligence, and
therefore as yet having no speech; composed of all the elements, but as
yet having no living intellectual fire manifest.
Their habitat was the "Imperishable
Sacred Land" around the region of the north pole, where they first
appeared in seven more or less distinct but overlapping localities.
Their method of reproduction in the earlier periods was by one form
melting into its progeny. Later the race reproduced itself by fission;
in all these cases there was no death to individuals, because the
individuals became their own descendants, as is exemplified in certain
elementary forms of life today. This race inhabited the globe when there
was more water than land on the earth, and its destruction was by fire.
However, even in this first root-race in which individualized
intelligence was not yet manifesting, because the forms were not yet
ready to carry this intelligence, there were nevertheless certain
representatives, the highest in the entire vast racial group, who were
already intelligent because of unfolded manasic attributes, and who
because of their more advanced state of evolution were enabled to build
up an intermediary psychological apparatus of etherealized or tenuous
character permitting the transmission of thought and intelligence from
the monad into the physical frame.
These intelligent entities, few as
compared with the vast numbers of the mass, were the first manasaputric
incarnations, and were therefore the highest and most evolved, and in
consequence the leaders and guardians of the unintelligent multitudes of
this race.
Root-race, Second
Like the first root-race of the present
round on globe D of the earth-chain, the second was astral, though
somewhat more concreted, physicalized, or materialized. The bodies were
unlike what is now regarded as human, bearing but vaguely the human
outline of a gelatinous, filamentoid, jelly-like nature, as yet without
evolved bones, organs, hair, or true skin. Reproduction was by budding,
as occurs in some lower organisms today.
About the middle of the race, these buds
became numerous and the process became modified to one analogous to the
casting off of spores or seeds, or to the exuding of drops of vital
sweat. These beings were mindless and unmoral, innocent, guided
unconsciously by their spiritual instincts, nevertheless largely under
the sway of lower rather than spiritual impulses, somewhat like the
animals of today. For as yet no intellectual fire from the manasaputras
(sons of mind) had been communicated to them, so that as yet there was
no working bridge of mentality between spirit and matter in them.
Root-race, Third
A period when human evolution passed
through a stage analogous to that of the third round, but qualified by
the fact that it belonged to the fourth round. The date of the beginning
of this third root-race is set at some 22 or 23 million years ago; and
18,000,000 years ago is given in theosophical writings as the date of
the awakening of mind and the separation of the sexes at or somewhat
after the midpoint of the third root-race. The latter date is collated,
according to the geology of Blavatsky's time, with the later Triassic
and earlier Jurassic periods.
The geographical area was the
enormous continent known as Lemuria and outlying islands, some even of
semi-continental size; and, like the other odd-numbered races, in this
geographical distribution the water-area predominated over the
land-area, and its destruction finally came about through fire.
The filamentoid and boneless structure of the semi-astral human
bodies at the end of the second root-race now thickened and condensed,
separating itself upon a rapidly developing skeletal form into nervous,
muscular, and other systems, combined with the appearance of definite
organs, with specific functions, thus constituting the first truly
physical human beings.
The mode of reproduction at the
beginning of the root-race was by the exudation from the surface of the
body of vital "sweat" or cells, but with the hardening and
specialization of the body itself, the production of the reproductive
cells became localized in special organs and the mode of generation
became oviparous; later these human eggs were no longer extruded as is
the case with fowls today, but shrank greatly in size and were developed
and fertilized within the body: first in a virginal manner, and then
before true sex appeared there ensued a fairly long period of
androgynous reproduction in which androgynous humans occasionally gave
birth to individuals in whom one or the other sex predominated; and
these occasional appearances, as time passed, became ever more frequent
with the recession of androgyny, and the final appearance of true sex as
it is understood today.
This process extended over hundreds of
thousands, and even a number of millions, of years.
More
important, however, than these biological facts was the awakening of
mind, of self-conscious thinking, inaugurated by the descent of the
manasaputras who not only at first projected sparks of their own full
self-consciousness into the innocent and unthinking humanity of that
early time, but who likewise so stimulated the appearance of mind that
the latter finally became common in differing degrees to the entire
human stock.
Root-race, Fourth
Often spoken of as the Atlantean, the
name given in theosophic writings to the land-system which it occupied;
it followed the third or so-called Lemurian race, not suddenly but with
overlapping. During the fourth root-race humanity reached its greatest
phases of materiality, especially since it occurred during the fourth
round. The fourth root-race was roughly contemporaneous with what
towards the end of the last century was called Tertiary times and came
to an end in what was then known as the middle Miocene. Its total
duration was millions of years.
The stature of the generality of
the fourth root-race peoples was what would be gigantic to us today,
which is one source of the universal tradition as to giants on the earth
in far antiquity. Its earlier language was the monosyllabic type of the
latter half of the third root-race, yet the characteristic speech during
a large portion of its span was of the agglutinative type, inflected
speech coming with the fifth root-race. The mode of reproduction was
sexual, as it was in the latter half of the third root-race.
After the fourth root-race had reached
its zenith, certain unevolved tribes committed miscegenation with the
most evolved of the then-existing simians, which were the descendants of
a previous miscegenation of representatives of the third root-race with
true monkey stocks. This second miscegenation produced a hybrid stock
from which the anthropoid apes are descended.
There was an
enmity lasting for ages between the benevolent and the selfish portions
of the fourth root-race, which continued with the Aryan adepts of the
nascent fifth root-race and finally ended in the triumph of the
positive; but nevertheless the karma of Atlantean black magic even yet
blights our own fifth root-race, for the people of today were imbodied
as the humans of Atlantean times. Descendants of fourth root-race
humanity even now are among the inhabitants of the earth, together with
rapidly dying out remnants of the third root-race, and also various
mixtures of all these.
During the fourth root-race on this globe
D of the fourth round, evolution reached the middle of its course for
this planetary manvantara, and the door to entry into the state of
spiritual and intellectual evolution called the human kingdom was
closed. All entities beneath the humans (and probably higher anthropoids
who were in existence before that epoch) must await until the next
succeeding round before even the highest representatives of the beast
kingdom can pass on to the human stage.
All subhuman kingdoms will show a
tendency as time goes on to die out, because the monads of these
kingdoms will go into latency for the remainder of the planetary
manvantara; their chance for evolution into the human state will come
again during the succeeding planetary manvantara.
Root-race, Fifth
The human race at present on earth; the
fifth root-race on this globe D in the fourth round originated from the
seed-race of the middle fourth root-race and as the ages passed began to
occupy the lands which have since gradually taken form in our present
continental distribution. It is subdivided, like all other root-races,
into seven subraces, and these again each into smaller divisions. The
present predominant sub-subrace is the fifth of its fourth primary
subrace, only a little beyond the point of greatest materiality of this
root-race.
In one general sense, the fifth root-race actually
comprises the many and extremely varied stocks which exist on the earth
today, simply because they all live in the time period of the fifth
root-race, although many of the stocks are lineal descendants of the
last subrace of the fourth root-race more or less intermixed with what
can be described as more characteristic fifth root-race stock.
The Chinese, for example, although
descended from the latest subrace of the fourth root-race, yet because
of living in fifth root-race times are to be reckoned among fifth
root-race peoples, of which indeed they are among the very oldest. The
Semites in all their divisions are to be considered as an early offshoot
of the fifth root-race, and not as a race essentially or radically
distinct.
The fifth root-race is sometimes spoken of as the
Aryan race, merely because the Aryans of India are an existing example
of the earliest branches of the fifth, though the term Aryan is not in
accordance with the various ethnological and linguistic distinction to
which that name is commonly applied. The characteristic language of this
root-race is inflectional, such as Sanskrit or Greek. The symbol of the
fifth or Aryan race is "that which is its most sacred symbol to this
day, the bull (and the cow)" (SD 2:533).
Root-race, Sixth
The root-race which will succeed the
present fifth root-race, sometimes called the Aryan race in theosophical
literature because the Aryan Hindus were a part of the original first
subrace of the fifth root-race. Care should be taken not to confuse the
sixth root-race with the sixth subrace of the fifth root-race which was
stated by Blavatsky to be in process of forming in America as seeds --
the earliest pioneers, although already beginning to appear, will not be
numerous for several thousand years.
The preparation for the sixth root-race
will take place during the sixth and seventh subraces of the fifth
root-race in the Americas. When the time arrives, this future sixth
root-race will be predominant on the earth, new lands will have
appeared, and many of the present lands will be submerged. The surface
of the globe will, in time of course, be entirely changed, and there
will then be more land than water (as also was the case during the
fourth root-race).
During the sixth root-race, humanity will not
be gigantic in size (as were the fourth and third root-races), for
spirituality will be on the ascendancy and materiality decreasing, so
that at the end of the sixth root-race the development of spirituality
will be parallel to what it was at the beginning of the second root-race
plus, however, the added evolutionary experience gained during the
preceding root-races.
The characteristics of sex will
gradually disappear, and humanity will be slowly once again becoming
androgynous. Offspring will be born in a manner generally similar to
that which prevailed during the second and early third root-race
periods: toward the close of the sixth, mankind will begin to manifest
the first appearances of reproduction by kriyasakti (propagation by
means of will and imagination).
Toward the close of the sixth root-race,
humanity will be showing a steadily increasing tendency to evolve out of
fleshly into more ethereal physical vehicles. These various changes are
presentments of what will in the due course be established in relative
perfection during the sixth round -- coming events cast their shadows
before. Indeed the sixth root-race will be as compared with our own
fifth far in advance, spiritually, intellectually, psychically, and even
physically; and the attainment by mankind of adeptship or mahatmaship
will be notably more easy than is the case at present.
With the
advent of each root-race a new cosmic element comes into proportionate
manifestation, and a new physical sense apparatus appears: thus humanity
in the sixth root-race will develop what is meant by a sixth sense. The
fifth cosmic element (often named aether or akasa-tattva) will reach a
development proportionate to the evolution of mankind during the fifth
root-race in this fourth round; and after the same manner, a sixth
cosmic element will make its appearance during the course of human
evolution during the sixth root-race. Furthermore, just as a
manushya-buddha comes to lead mankind in each root-race, so will one
appear during the sixth root-race of the future.
Root-race, Seventh
The seventh and last root-race of any
round on any globe of a planetary chain. Reference is nearly always to
the seventh root-race of the fourth round on globe D of the earth-chain.
It characteristics are analogous on a smaller scale to those of the
seventh round, modified by the fact that it belongs to the fourth round.
There is a return to conditions of purity which prevailed at the
beginning of the round; but this return does not mean a going backward
but an emanative evolutionary unfolding to the point where the cyclic
motion brings all things back to the same plane, but on a higher
subdivision.
The great adepts and initiates --
referring here specifically to the seventh root-race on globe D of the
fourth round -- will once more produce mind-born sons immaculately, and
there will be a race of buddhas, sons of god, the purity of the
krita-age being reestablished (SD 2:274, 483). The invisible north polar
continent will once more become visible, and the bodhisattva Maitreya
will appear (SD 1:328, 470). A seventh element will appear as a
presentment, not however to be fully manifested until the seventh round.
In this race some of the greatest adepts will return.
