There are two questions that have been asked of me: "You have told us, G. de P., that in the human constitution there is an animal monad which in the next chain-imbodiment will become a "human being. You have likewise told us that the animals on, say, our globe of this chain, on our globe, will be humans in the next chain-imbodiment. Question: How do you make this out? Where stand the humans-to-be who are now the animal monads in man? Where will they be when compared with the future humans on the next chain-imbodiment who are now here our beasts?"
The other question is this: You stated some little time ago, that from the very beginning of this present chain-imbodiment, we who are now humans as monads have always been humans. How then do you account for the other teaching regarding the door into the human kingdom which closed at the middle point of the Fourth Round, in other words during the Atlantean race?
There are the two questions. As a matter of fact, Companions, the answers to these questions, to both of them, may be found in our books and in my own books. I have spoken of them, giving answers to each one, I think a dozen times from this platform.
What I said a moment ago is true. It is our teaching that the present human monads have been human monads from the beginning of this chain-imbodiment; and please remember we are speaking of monads now. I have likewise stated that there is in man an animal monad which in the next chain-imbodiment will be human. Now I will take the first question first: The answer is this: Those animals which are now called animal monads and which are the animal parts of us men — I do not mean the physical body, that is the physical part of men, but the animal part, in other words our animal, the human animal of us, the instincts, the thoughts, the motives, the attributes, the qualities that make the human animal, and of which the body is merely an expression, the open door — these will be the humans in the human kingdom in the next chain-imbodiment; and our present animals will then be the lower and lowest units of the human kingdom in the next chain-imbodiment.
To make this more comprehensible let us reverse the process. Instead of looking ahead, we will go back to the moon, the moon-chain, the time when we were all on the moon. We then, we higher humans now in this chain-imbodiment, were on the moon the individual animal monads in the then humans of the moon-chain. Do you understand me? In other words the men on the moon-chain had, as we now have, animal monads as part of their constitution. When the moon-chain finished its manvantaric evolution and died as a chain, giving birth to this chain, the moon-humans then had become Dhyan-Chohans, had entered the dhyan-chohanic kingdom. Their animal monads had then become human, each going up a step.
Now then, what were the humans on the moon were the lowest of the Dhyan-Chohans in this imbodiment. What were the animal monads in the moon-men are now the humans in this chain-imbodiment. Is that thought clear? Again, what the animals are now, as I have already stated, on this earth or in this chain-imbodiment, will be the lower and lowest humans in the next chain-imbodiment. Reverse the process on the moon. What the moon-animals were when the moon ended its Seventh Round, then became human, not the high humans, but they entered the human kingdom. They were men, but the lower part of what we now call the human kingdom. Is that thought clear? Very good.
So we have the animals on the moon become the lower humans here. These lower humans as well as the higher humans when this earth-chain ends its Seventh Round will be Dhyan-Chohans; and our present human animal monads will be then the higher humans of the next chain-to-be, the child of this chain; and our animals now, i. e., those who make the grade, on this earth when the Seventh Round ends, will be the lower and lowest humans in the next chain-imbodiment. So you see we have thus: animal entering the human kingdom, not the bodies, the monads. That is where your constant confusion comes in. You keep thinking of bodies. I am talking of monads. What are now the monads manifesting through the animals, when the Seventh Round of this chain is ended, will have evolved, which means developed, unfolded — the monads will have unfolded to become human, so that in the next chain-imbodiment the animals will then be human. What kind of humans? The highest? No, we have already stated the higher will be what are now the animal monads in us men, as we were on the moon the animal monads in the moon-men. And the animals on the moon reached humanity, the human stage, at the end of the Seventh Moon-Round, i. e., those who made the grade, so that they could then become men in the human kingdom, and are amongst us now on this earth as the lower and lowest humans.
It is an old, simple teaching that every Theosophist knows, that not only are there 7, 10, 12 classes of monads, but that each such class or family (kingdom is another good word) has its own special divisions, so that our human kingdom has its special divisions; the Masters and the Buddhas at one end, the almost animal humans a the other end, like the Veddahs of Ceylon, the Andaman Islanders and so on. Between these two classes of men there is an enormous psychological, spiritual, and intellectual range. But they are all men, they all belong to the human kingdom, because all have attained conscious self-consciousness.
Now there you have the answer to the first question and I hope you have understood it. You will realize that this matter has been explained and this question has been answered on many occasions in the past.
The other question is this, and it leads right on from this first one. I will repeat the question: "G. de P., you stated some time age that we human monads have been human from the beginning of this chain-imbodiment. How is this reconciled with the other statement made by H. P. B. and you that the door into the human kingdom closed at the middle point of our Fourth Round, in other words during the Atlantean race? There seems a contradiction here." From what has been stated, you see clearly that there is no contradiction because the answer to the first question shows that the human monads were humans from the very beginning of our chain-imbodiment, because they attained humanity at the end of the Seventh Moon-Round.
What then is the meaning of this phrase, "door into the human kingdom closing at the middle point of the Fourth Round"? It means this: That all those entities coming from the moon-pitris, lunar pitris, which we can use now as a very general term meaning all monads coming from the moon — there are lunar human pitris, lunar animal pitris, lunar plant pitris, lunar mineral pitris, lunar dhyan-chohanic pitris — it means that all these were the fathers of everything, that is of our own chain now, the lunar fathers of all the kingdoms.
I will make a short excursus now before continuing my answer, because it may make the answer clearer. You remember that H. P. B. and others have written of families or classes of monads, in other words these are the different kingdoms of nature. H. P. B. counts them as 7, because the septenary classification is easier, and she wrote to make things easier. A more complete classification is that of 10, 10 kingdoms, 10 classes of monads. The most complete is that of 12.
Now H. P. B.'s 7 kingdoms or classes of monads were the following, counting from the highest down: 3 classes of Dhyan-Chohans, the human kingdom, the beast kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, and the mineral kingdom, seven. She merely mentioned but did not include 3 more lower than the mineral, the elemental kingdoms, three in number thus making 10 — 10 kingdoms of nature. What then are the other two kingdoms of nature to make the complete number 12, corresponding by the way to the 12 globes of the chain, to the 12 Houses of the Zodiac, or the 12 Logoi of the sun? They are these: No. 1, and the first and the lowest, if you wish, counting upwards now, is the root-manu; the 12th is the seed-manu, using the terms employed by H. P. B.; and thus you have your 12. You see therefore that the kingdom of the Manus is higher than the highest kingdom of the Dhyan-Chohans, and it is practically a divine kingdom, if we speak of the dhyan-chohanic threefold kingdom as being spiritual.
Now then, I return to my answer to the question: The door into the human kingdom means that after 3 rounds have taken place, and the Fourth Round which was the lowest and most material is over, ended, there comes a point in time and in natural functions where the descent on the downward arc stops, and from that moment begins the climb on the upward arc. The downward arc is the arc of shadows, so-called. The upward arc is the luminous arc. The reason for these names is the following: The downward arc is the evolution of matter. Matter comes forth in all its myriad multiform shapes, going with the corresponding involution or recession of spirit. The luminous arc is the reverse of this. The evolution of spirit corresponding to an involution of matter. Matter is ingathered. Spirit expands on the upward arc.
Now then, only those beings can climb the upward arc which have the germs of self-consciousness within them, because it is the arc of the opening of spirit. Do you catch that thought? Now on the downward arc, the law of acceleration came into operation for the lower kingdoms of nature. The law of retardation on the downward arc was in force where the spiritual monads were concerned, for they did not want to drop into matter, they ran down reluctantly and slowly; whereas the material entities, the lower beings expressing themselves in the lower kingdoms, had a tremendous pull down, and rushed down. So we see the lower kingdoms were under the law of acceleration on the downward arc. The spiritual kingdoms were under the law of retardation. On the upward arc that is reversed. The spiritual beings as they began to attain the luminous arc felt the attraction of spirit more and more, as their feet became freed from the mire of matter they began to feel the law of acceleration, they began to reach up.
But the creatures more heavy with matter, feeling the attraction of matter downwards, began to lag behind, the law of retardation began to work on them. They are less attracted to the spirit and they are pulled downwards by matter.
Now at this point, so far as the human kingdom is concerned, where the lowest of the downward arc is, is what we call the door into the human kingdom. All those entities whatsoever which have not reached self-consciousness, do not enter that door which will enable them to go upwards to the Seventh Round. I wonder if I have made my meaning clear. Such a simple thought and yet a subtil one. For instance, the door into the human kingdom does not concern the dhyan-chohanic kingdoms; they are above the human. It concerns the human kingdoms and the kingdoms below the humans. All the monads therefore which were human before reaching the midpoint of the Fourth Round passed as it were naturally and simply through the door into the human kingdom which was already open, and they kept right on their way; whereas the monads, like the monads of the animals, which had not achieved humanity yet during the previous three rounds, when they came to this lowest point were so to speak challenged by nature. The ancient religions such as the Egyptians expressed it by the Guardian at the Gate. Who comes here? Who art thou? as the Sanskritists had it. The Book of the Dead speaks of these challenges at the various gates. Now anyone who could give the passwords passed on through; and remember that giving the password was not any password, the door into the human kingdom is not any door. It merely means Nature's laws beginning to operate at a certain evolutionary point. This point is the middle, the lowest point of all the seven rounds — the middle of the Fourth in the middle of the Atlantean race. All the monads therefore which have been rushing onwards in the downward arc through the three rounds had now come to the Fourth. Those who could pass on passed naturally and began the upward arc: the Manava kingdom, the 3 dhyan-chohanic kingdoms, and the human kingdom. When it came to the animals, the door closed. They could not pass. In other words they could not enter the human kingdom because they were not yet human.
Now another question! Why are the beasts still with us? As I have already explained, they have not passed the human kingdom; they are feeling strongly the attraction of matter. As each million years goes by, as each thousand years goes by, their pace becomes slower and slower, they cannot make the grade. After a while they stop, die out, and enter into the Nirvana. This is the meaning of the statement you have heard in our books that with a very few exceptions the animal kingdom will not reach to the Seventh Round. Why? They cannot make the grade upwards. The attraction is below. They will enter into their Nirvana and wait till the next chain-imbodiment. Then they will attain humanity. That will be their reward in a chain somewhat superior to this.
And now comes a paradox, a very strange paradox. Some of the monads which have reached in their unwrapping evolution as far as the animal kingdom, will even make it up to the Seventh Round where they will become men. In other words they will then have reached self-consciousness, and then they will be the lower humans of the next chain-round. The animal monad in us at the end of the Seventh Round will be the human monad and will be the higher humans in the next chain-imbodiment.
You may wonder about the apes. Where do they come in the scale of things? Have they entered the human kingdom? No. They are more animal than human. They still belong to the animal kingdom. But there is a touch in the apes — mind you, I am not speaking of the monkeys, I mean the apes — there is in the apes just enough human blood, through us, to enable them in the next chain to be the spiritual and intellectual leaders of the animals who will then form in the next chain-imbodiment the lower and lowest men. The beast will be the highest of this branch of the then human kingdom.
So then we really have the human kingdom, the apes an intermediate stage, the beasts; and the beasts themselves are in many sub-branches - — the highest, the intermediate, and the lowest. There is an enormous difference among the beasts, between the ape and the insect, or between a horse and any other creature, a squirrel, a racoon, or what not. Such distances are enormous even among men.
And now, dear Companions, with all that I have said, I have been talking of monads, and in this connexion you may ask yourselves: Doesn't evolution affect bodies also? The answer is yes. But you see, scientists do not know anything about spiritual evolution except in a very small way. Their idea of evolution is a betterment of the physical body through the slow ages. True, the physical body has progressed through ages; we do not deny it, but it is the forces working from within upon the body, refining it, refining its organs, refining its flesh that brings about this physical evolution. But among the scientists evolution is chance, haphazard, Darwinism. To us the door into the human kingdom has nothing to do with the shape of bodies, of beings, it has solely to do with the inner parts, monadic parts, spiritual, intellectual, psychical, and astral, and when these change, the bodies change. So that I can tell you, Companions, even in a small degree the flesh of the truly good man is finer than the flesh of a man who leads a gross life. And that is why it is a true statement when the Buddhists say that the Buddha was a marvel of manly beauty, that even his body seemed to be translucent with spiritual life, something about him was not like the ordinary. It is true. There was a fire of the spirit within him working through his blood and his nerves and the very tissues of his flesh and his bones, making the vehicle more refined in every way. Actually there is a difference between the flesh of a man and the flesh of beasts. I do not say chemists can find it — they may some day. But there is; even the very smell shows it.
The above article deals with one of the most complicated subjects of Theosophy — an explanation of how the monads pass from the animal kingdom into the human kingdom, and the relation of the Moon-chain life-waves to the reimbodied life-waves of the Earth-chain. This particular article was a talk given on July 30, 1939, at the close of a meeting of the Headquarters Lodge, Point Loma, California. Further teaching on this same subject was given by Dr. de Purucker at later meetings of the Lodge, and a verbatim transcription of these will be printed in immediately following issues of the Forum.