The Dawn of Civilization

An Esoteric Account

Pablo Sender

The model for the evolution of humanity presented by the esoteric philosophy is far more

complex than the modern scientific views on the subject. In The Secret Doctrine, H.P. Blavatsky

states that humanity develops through seven great evolutionary cycles, called “Root Races,”

which give rise to seven consecutive human civilizations.

Each of these humanities developed on different continents. At the end of each Root

Race, there was a global geological upheaval that changed the face of the earth. Because of these

continental changes, the vast majority of the remains from previous Root Races are currently

under the oceans.

According to The Secret Doctrine, the First Root Race, nonphysical beings lacking in

consciousness, began to develop over 1.5 billion years ago. The first self-conscious humanity

resembling what we know today was the Third Root Race, which started over 18 million years

ago. The anthropological records, historic and even prehistoric, belong to our current Root Race,

which is the fifth (out of seven).

The esoteric story of human civilization is too vast to be covered in one article. Here we

will limit ourselves to exploring the genesis of humanity and the beginning of civilization,

according to The Secret Doctrine.

<A>Assisted Evolution</A>
Modern science explains the emergence of humankind as a result of chance chemical events and

random mutations. The odds of this occurrence are so slim that scientists regard the evolution of

humanity nothing short of a miracle. Theosophical teachings, by contrast, say that this “miracle”

is really the orderly work of natural forces with the assistance of intelligent beings. These

intelligences guiding the process of evolution have been recognized in all religious traditions of

the past. They were conceived of as gods, angels, devas, and so forth.

Unfortunately, these celestial beings have frequently been anthropomorphized in such a

way that makes them appear as fanciful inventions. Perhaps this is inevitable, because we cannot

really understand the nature of nonhuman intelligences. Even the Stanzas of The Secret Doctrine

use mythological imagery and allegorical language to explain the origins and evolution of human

beings.

Although accepting the participation of celestial beings, esoteric philosophy does not

support a creationist view. It agrees with the evolutionary theory, extending it beyond the

physical world into the intellectual and spiritual realms. This evolution, however, is not blind,

random, or purposeless. It has clear aims, and the intelligent beings who guide it are not perfect,

but are themselves evolving.

<A>The First Root Race</A>

According to The Secret Doctrine, once the earth was ready to hold human life, two groups of

celestial beings were called upon to assist in the “creation” of man—the Lords of the Moon and

the Lords of the Flame: “Bring forth men of your nature. Give their spirits a subtle form. Mother

Earth will build a material covering” (Secret Doctrine, 2.75).

 Their task was to provide the “spirits” (human monads) with an astral body that nature

could use as a model to slowly start building a physical human form. The seven Lords of the

Moon (seven hierarchies or groups, not seven individual celestial beings) responded to the call,

but the Lords of the Flame remained behind, refusing to engage in the work of creation. They

claimed that they were too spiritual and pure and furthermore did not have creative powers to

build material forms. The Lords of the Moon, devas of a less spiritual nature, went to their

allotted lands on seven different portions of the earth, ready to create the seven primordial groups

of human beings. They emanated astral forms out of their own nonphysical bodies, which

became the First Root Race of humanity—ethereal and gigantic. The rudimentary form (not yet a

body proper) of the early humans was a mere shadow, and these beings were regarded as a

“phantom race.” The astral forms were sexless—they were not born from parents but reproduced

themselves by fission. For this reason, the First Root Race was called “the self-born.” The Lords

of the Moon were capable of producing astral forms, but they were not able to give minds to the

members of this race. The protohumanity of this Root Race was essentially an embryonic stage,

devoid of understanding.

Being nonphysical, the forms could not be affected by fire, water or other natural

elements. This rendered them impervious to the harsh conditions of the planet at the time. In fact,

the phantom race could not die—they lasted for the whole duration of their evolutionary cycle,

being finally assimilated to the bodies of the next Root Race.

The First Root Race developed on the “primordial land,” which is said to be a region

destined to last from the beginning to the end of the evolution on this Earth, surviving all

cataclysms and continental changes that will take place in this evolutionary Round. The first

continent is called the “Imperishable Sacred Land.” Blavatsky wrote:

<EXT>Of this mysterious and sacred land very little can be said, except, perhaps, according to a

poetical expression in one of the Commentaries, that the “pole-star has its watchful eye upon it,

from the dawn to the close of the twilight of “a day” of the GREAT BREATH. (Secret Doctrine,

2.6)<END EXT>

This primordial land was located at what was the North Pole of 1.5 billion years ago. This was

not our current North Pole, under which there is no land. As The Secret Doctrine explains, the

inclination of the earth’s axis has shifted since then, so this imperishable sacred land would be

today somewhere in the northern hemisphere.

<A>The Second Root Race</A>

As the astral forms of the First Root Race floated around, the “spirit of the Earth” (referring to

the elemental and nature spirits) was busy at work developing the bodies of the next Root Race.

Using the astral forms as a template, nature built a denser, though still ethereal, covering around

them. The original astral forms became now a subtler counterpart of the newly developed

ethereal bodies of the Second Root Race. This humanity was called “the boneless,” indicating

that it was not yet a physical race. They were “the most heterogeneous gigantic semi-human

monsters—the first attempts of material nature at building human bodies” (Secret Doctrine,

2.138).These “semi-humans” showed an instinctive intelligence, but they were still devoid of

mind and self-consciousness. They too reproduced asexually, using a method of “budding and

expansion.” (Today there are some simple animals, such as flatworms, which reproduce by

budding, although this process is mostly associated with bacteria and yeast.)
 The egg-shaped aura surrounding the ethereal body extruded a small germ from itself,

which would feed from its parent and expand until it gradually detached itself from its originator.

In the later part of this Root Race, the “buds” began to look like drops of sweat—“a kind of

exudation of moisture or vital fluid.” (Secret Doctrine, 2.132). For this reason, the late second

Race was called “the sweat-born.”

The land on which this Root Race developed was called by Blavatsky “Hyperborea,” in

reference to the mythical perfect land of the Greeks:

<EXT>The “HYPERBOREAN” will be the name chosen for the Second Continent, the land which

stretched out its promontories southward and westward from the North Pole to receive the

Second Race, and comprised the whole of what is now known as Northern Asia. . . . It was a real

Continent, a bona fide land which knew no winter in those early days. (Secret Doctrine,

2.7)<END EXT>

During this Root Race, the Earth too became more “solid,” producing more dry lands. This

caused a great displacement of the waters of oceans, which changed their beds. The ethereal

bodies of this Root Race were still impervious to the weather, although not completely to the

physical elements. In fact, the majority of this race was eventually destroyed by the water

displaced in this first universal flood (of which there were several).

<A>The Third Root Race</A>

At the beginning of the next Root Race, the small “sweat drops” started to change. They grew,

becoming hard and round, eventually turning into eggs, out of which individuals hatched. The
Third Root Race, now known as the “egg-born,” was approaching a fully physical form—a race

“with bones.” During the transition from the sweat-born to the egg-born, the asexual progeny

became hermaphroditic, each body able to produce eggs on its own. By the middle of the Third

Root Race, the eggs “began to give birth, gradually and almost imperceptibly in their

evolutionary development, first, to Beings in which one sex predominated over the other, and,

finally, to distinct men and women” (Secret Doctrine, 2.132). At this stage, reproduction began

to take sexual form. This change, of course, took millions of years, but by the end, human beings

were fully physical, born from the wombs of their mothers as male or female. They were again

gigantic, adapted to the general conditions and surroundings of the earth at the time. Legends of

giant races are present in most ancient mythologies. Still, this middle Third Root Race was the

first one that resembled what we call “human,” and was now ready for the crucial step.

<A>The Advent of Self-Consciousness</A>

About 18 million years ago, after humanity developed a physical body, the time came for the

“completion” of the human being—the awakening of mind and self-consciousness. According to

the esoteric philosophy, this milestone could not be reached by the efforts of nature alone. It

required the assistance of those celestial beings who had previously refused to involve

themselves in the creation of the early human forms—the Lords of the Flame. While these

celestial beings could not help with physical evolution, they were able to do what the Lords of

the Moon could not—stimulate the intellectual evolution of humanity by ensouling the bodies.

The terminology about these celestial beings in The Secret Doctrine is confusing. For the

purpose of this article, we will simplify and state that there were two groups of beings under the

“Lords of the Flame.” One is the “Lords of Wisdom”—celestial beings that had finished their
human evolution in previous cycles and could now be regarded as “gods.” The other group, the

“Sons of Wisdom,” are celestial beings of various degrees of evolution who are in the process of

going through the human experience. These Sons of Wisdom are our souls.

The Secret Doctrine says that some among the Sons of Wisdom—those who had attained

a higher level of evolution in previous cycles—incarnated in the human forms and became

spiritual sages (Arhats) after a few rebirths. In Blavatsky’s words:

<EXT>The Sons of Wisdom, or the spiritual Dhyanis, had become “intellectual” through their

contact with matter, because they had already reached, during previous cycles of incarnation, that

degree of intellect which enabled them to become independent and self-conscious entities, on

this plane of matter. They were reborn only by reason of Karmic effects. They entered those who

were “ready,” and [eventually] became the Arhats, or sages, alluded to above. (Secret Doctrine,

2.167)<END EXT>

Most Sons of Wisdom, however, were only able to send sparks of themselves into the bodies.

Although this was enough to awaken the mind of the early humans, they remained destitute of

the higher, enlightened knowledge already attained by the group mentioned above. These

individuals constitute the average humanity of today, which is in the process of acquiring

wisdom by passing through the different Root Races.

Lastly, a prideful group of Sons of Wisdom, on seeing the primitive and mindless bodies

they had to incarnate into, delayed their action. “WE CAN CHOOSE . . . WE HAVE WISDOM ,” they

said (Secret Doctrine, 2.161), and decided to wait for the bodies to evolve further before getting
involved with them. But this was a mistake—the forms left unawakened turned into a mindless,

semianimal race, called the “narrow-brained.”

This third group of Sons of Wisdom, who decided to wait, had hoped that the bodies

would keep on evolving in the meantime. However, physical evolution had done the best it could

under the guidance of the Lords of the Moon, after which they retired, passing on the

responsibility of evolution to the Sons of Wisdom. These deserted bodies, instead of evolving,

began to degenerate. The narrow-brained beings started to reproduce with animals and gave birth

to a monstrous “race of crooked, red-hair-covered monsters, going on all fours” (Secret Doctrine,

2.184). Seeing this, the Sons of Wisdom decided to incarnate before the situation got worse, but

they had to do so in forms that had been desecrated, thus becoming a backward race. The karmic

effects of the “sin of the mindless” fell upon those Sons of Wisdom “who failed to do by them

their Karmic duty” (Secret Doctrine, 2.185).

Meanwhile, quite apart from this, a hierarchy of “gods”—the Lords of Wisdom—had

created their own human forms by means of kriya-shakti (thought power) and incarnated among

the Third Root Race. As we will see later, they would become the rulers and teachers of the early

humanity.

In summary, esoteric philosophy postulates that there were seven groups of souls of

varying degrees of evolution incarnating in early humanity—from those who had almost

completed their human journey in previous cycles to those who were newly developed souls on

this evolutionary Round. This is an important concept. If all souls inhabiting human bodies were

created equal just before incarnating, it is difficult to explain the mysteries of evil and

inequalities in social, moral, intellectual, and spiritual capacities among human beings.

According to Blavatsky, the fact that there was a difference in the maturity or “age” of the
human souls from the very beginning “solves the secret of the subsequent inequalities of

intellectual capacity, and gives a logical explanation to the incomprehensible Karmic course.”

(Secret Doctrine, 2.161).

The mind of the late Third Root Race was young and innocent, and humans were more

spiritual than intellectual. They developed a kind of nature-sound language to communicate with

each other, but the essence of the communication between individuals was from mind to mind,

by means of the spiritual “third eye” of which they were endowed. Because of this, the Third

Root Race could perceive intuitively their connection with nature and the divine. In Blavatsky’s

words:

<EXT>No sooner had the mental eye of man been opened to understanding, than the Third Race

felt itself one with the ever-present as the ever to be unknown and invisible all, the One

Universal Deity. Endowed with divine powers, and feeling in himself his inner God, each felt he

was a Man-God in his nature, though an animal in his physical Self. (Secret Doctrine,

2.272)<END EXT>

<A>Early Civilization</A>

The continent of the Third Root Race was located in the area of the Pacific Ocean. Blavatsky

wrote:

<EXT>The third Continent, we propose to call “Lemuria” . . . extended from Madagascar to

Ceylon and Sumatra. It included some portions of what is now Africa; but otherwise this gigantic

Continent, which stretched from the Indian ocean to Australia, has now wholly disappeared
beneath the waters of the Pacific, leaving here and there only some of its highland tops which are

now islands. (Secret Doctrine, 2.7).<END EXT>

Before the awakening of the mind, weather had not been an issue, since “an eternal spring

reigned over the whole globe” (Secret Doctrine, 2.135). Toward the end of this Root Race,

however, there was a shift in the earth’s axis, and the world began to experience a change of

seasons. Humanity found itself expelled from “paradise” and had to learn to survive in the new

and hostile conditions. However, according to Theosophical teachings, this child humanity did

not have to learn how to survive by the slow method of trial and error, as modern science

proposes.

<EXT>After (the separation [of sexes]) . . . the eternal spring became constant change and

seasons succeeded. Cold forced men to build shelters and devise clothing. Then man appealed to

the superior Fathers (the higher gods or angels) . . . Divine Kings descended and taught men

sciences and arts, for man could live no longer in the first land (Adi-Varsha, the Eden of the first

Races), which had turned into a white frozen corpse. (Secret Doctrine, 2.201)<END EXT>

At this juncture, the Lords of Wisdom stepped in and became the leaders and teachers of

humankind. They are remembered in many traditions as the gods who were the “Divine Rulers”

during the golden age of humanity. As mentioned before, the Third Root Race did not have a

formal religion; but they had a natural childlike devotion for their Divine Kings, who guided and

taught them:
 <EXT>At the dawn of consciousness, the man of the Third Root-Race had no beliefs that

could be called religion. . . . But if the term is to be defined as the binding together of the masses

in one form of reverence paid to those we feel higher than ourselves, of piety—as a feeling

expressed by a child toward a loved parent—then even the earliest Lemurians had a religion—

and a most beautiful one. (Secret Doctrine, 2.272)<END EXT>

It was the Golden Age, when

<EXT>the gods walked the earth, and mixed freely with the mortals . . .

These gods incarnate taught humanity the rudiments of sciences and arts, and helped

them build their first cities:

Under the guidance of their divine Rulers [they] built large cities, cultivated arts and

sciences, and knew astronomy, architecture and mathematics to perfection. (Secret Doctrine,

2.273, 317)<END EXT>

But all this happened gradually. Many hundreds of thousands years after the separation of sexes

elapsed before the primeval civilization started. The Lemurians built their first cities out of stone

and lava. Eventually, they were able to build huge cities using rare earths, metals, lava, marble,

and black stones. According to Blavatsky, the first large cities appeared on that region of the

Lemurian continent which is now known as the island of Madagascar (Secret Doctrine, 2.317).

<A>Conclusion</A>

How are we to take this narrative? Is it supposed to describe real facts, or is it allegorical?

Blavatsky admitted that, “to some extent . . . even the esoteric teaching is allegorical,” because
the endeavor to present processes taking place on nonphysical planes “requires the use of

symbols cast in an intelligible form” (Secret Doctrine, 2.81). That being said, Blavatsky claims

that the story offered in The Secret Doctrine describes what actually happened.

If so, how far does this account agree with the findings of modern science? No remains

could be found of the first two Root Races, which were nonphysical. But when we come to

statements about the physical races (third and fourth), one of the difficulties in judging their

veracity is that these races inhabited areas that are not easily accessible to modern

anthropological research. Blavatsky and her teachers pointed out that the lack of remains

belonging to the giant races can be explained by the fact that the greater part of the continents of

Lemuria and Atlantis are now under the oceans. In the words of Mahatma Koot Hoomi:

<EXT>No doubt your geologists are very learned; but why not bear in mind that . . . there may

be, hidden deep in the fathomless, or rather unfathomed ocean beds, other, and far older

continents whose stratums have never been geologically explored; and that they may some day

upset entirely their present theories. (Chin and Barker, 310).<END EXT>

Anthropological studies do not yet present a reliable picture of human evolution. We learn every

year of new findings that modify previously held theories, a number of them pointing in the

direction of claims made in The Secret Doctrine. The time may come when clear evidence

surfaces but until then, the esoteric and scientific views walk on different paths.

Sources

Emphasis in quotes is from the original.

Blavatsky, H.P. The Secret Doctrine. Two volumes. Wheaton: Quest, 1993.

Chin, Vicente Hao, Jr., and A.T. Barker. The Mahatma Letters in Chronological Sequence.

Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1998.

TWO- OR THREE-SENTENCE AUTHOR’S BIO NEEDED.