From the religious angle, many of the most ancient works of the Hindus in particular will be referenced, whilst elements of the Jewish, Persian, Islamic, Buddhist, Gnostic, Celtic and Christian traditions will all be referenced where applicable.

The other major source will be from the writings of Alice A. Bailey (A.A.B.), transmitted by the Master Djwhal Khul who was intimately involved with the first ‘installment’ of the Ageless Wisdom through HPB. These teachings in many ways compliment and augment that which was already given out through HPB.

The Secret Doctrine was HPB’s ‘magnum opus’ and still has not had its secrets unraveled or the material done real justice. Cosmogenesis (Book 1) is the study of the origin and development of the universe. Anthropogenesis (Book 2) is the study of the origin and development of humanity. Both draw upon the most arcane aspects of all spiritual disciplines.

The Book of Dzyan is the skeleton of The Secret Doctrine. It is the first in fourteen volumes of commentaries on the seven secret folios of Kiu-Ti. There are thirty-five ‘exoteric’ volumes of these in most Tibetan monasteries, but they are full of gross distortions and exaggerations. The Book of Dzyan is kept separate from the other volumes by the Teshu Lama of Tjigad-je.

‘Dzyan’ comes from ‘Dhyana’, meaning ‘spiritual meditation’. It is with this attitude that these teachings should be approached, not purely through the lop-sided Western analytical method of study.

There are three sets of books by Kiu-Ti:

1) Seven secret volumes 
2) 14 volumes of Commentaries, annotations & glossary for Initiates.
3) Thirty-five exoteric volumes.” [2]

Exploring the hidden history of the world entails going back to the birth of the solar system of which our Earth is just one planet. As part of this process questions can be asked as to the source of the solar system and this will be covered.

It is important to understand how the solar system came into being, as it provides a structure within which a perspective can be gained of the development of our planet – for ‘as above, so below’. Therefore this study will proceed in two stages: 

1. Cosmogenesis: (Origin of the Cosmos) The stupendous question of how this universe and solar system came into being, with its subsequent planetary “schemes”, “chains”, “rounds” and “globes”.

It is intended in this section to give a broad picture without too much detail for the reader to become swamped, but at the same time it must be fairly thorough, as it will be referenced when discussing Anthropogenesis.  

2. Anthropogenesis: (Origin of Humanity) Investigation of relatively recent history - the major rootraces that have come into being in this Fourth Round on Earth. This section will be far more detailed as there are relatively more tangible components in the picture. 

Large segments from HPB’s works have been edited down, paraphrased and quoted verbatim, in an effort to (a) preserve the original meaning (b) to make the subject more succinct without wandering too much from the main theme (as The  Secret Doctrine is often prone to do!), (c) ground a solid foundation for the history of humanity (Anthropogenesis) later.  

The Occult and Modern Sciences: Complimentary Keys

“Modern science insists upon the doctrine of evolution; so do human reason and the "secret doctrine," and the idea is corroborated by the ancient legends and myths, and even by the Bible itself when it is read between the lines. We see a flower slowly developing from a bud, and the bud from its seed. But whence the latter, with all its predetermined programme of physical transformation, and its invisible, therefore spiritual forces which gradually develop its form, color, and odor?

The word evolution speaks for itself. The germ of the present human race must have preexisted in the parent of this race, as the seed, in which lies hidden the flower of next summer, was developed in the capsule of its parent-flower; the parent may be but slightly different, but it still differs from its future progeny. The antediluvian ancestors of the present elephant and lizard were, perhaps, the mammoth and the plesiosaurus; why should not the progenitors of our human race have been the "giants" of the Vedas, the Voluspa, and the Book of Genesis? While it is positively absurd to believe the "transformation of species" to have taken place according to some of the more materialistic views of the evolutionists, it is but natural to think that each genus, beginning with the mollusks and ending with monkey-man, has modified from its own primordial and distinctive forms.” [3]  

As this study is aimed at the curious lay person as well as experienced students of esoteric lore, a few preliminary explanations are in order. ‘Anthropogenesis’ is the scientific study of the development and evolution of the human race. The word ‘scientific’ expands here from its usual translation in that it is the wholistic science of the occult sciences. Occult science simply means the science of the hidden, referring to those animating and subtle energies that substand the outer life we see around us. It is part of the so-called ‘ageless wisdom’ or ‘perennial philosophy’ that has been around for thousands of years and which exists in many different traditions. The Secret Doctrine is of course such a compendium of occult science and looks at the big picture as well as the smaller details and disciplines within that vast panorama. The microcosm is where the ‘exoteric’ or outer sciences specialise, those which study the physically tangible and measurable.

Therein lies one of the aims of this treatise, to bridge the exoteric and esoteric sciences. Indeed, in this particular case, one is lost without the other as the latter ‘proves’ and grounds an understanding of the precepts and cosmic laws which are part of occult science. The exoteric sciences are known as ‘Dzyu-mi’ (illusion, false appearances), whilst the esoteric are ‘Dzyu’ one real (magical) knowledge, or Occult Wisdom). Note the root ‘Dzyu’ (pertaining to Dzyan) which is the expression of the collective Wisdom of the Dhyani-Buddhas. [4]

Therefore there are several ‘keys’ to The Secret Doctrine, not unlike the seven liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. HPB has said that “Seven keys open the mysteries, past, present and future, of the seven great Rootraces, and of the seven Kalpas.” [5]

Every symbol and allegory is said to have seven keys, the seven keys to the entrance of the door of the mysteries and that each key must be turned seven times. Throughout The Secret Doctrine several keys are mentioned: Psychological, Astronomical, Physical or physiological, Metaphysical, Anthropological, Astrological, Geometrical, Mystical, Symbolical and Numerical.

These are mainly occult keys, yet HPB mentions several exoteric scientific keys such as geology, geography, chemistry, biology, botany, anthropology, history and so on. Some of these will be critical to this study, and if picked up upon by experts in their field, will make worthy explorations. Of course there are probably also sciences such as ‘esoteric geology’ etc.

Some other keys not mentioned above could be incorporated into a septenary which follow the qualities of the seven rays: metaphysical/numerical (first principles) (1), psychological (the study of the soul) (2), astrological-cyclic (3), mythological (4), alchemical (5), mystical(6) and magical (7).

All of the above will be drawn upon in this exposition, with a particular focus on the keys of astrology and the seven rays, cycles, rootrace chronology, astronomy, geology, geography and mythology, plus the Hindu Manus and Jewish patriachs. The synthesis of all these keys will primarily demonstrate the evolution of consciousness in the human kingdom – where we have come from, where we are now, and where we are headed. The Stanzas of Dzyan is of course the very skeleton of The Secret Doctrine and a major key that is the source of all other keys.

The aim will be to demonstrate a sequential chronology of the rootraces with their corresponding timelines according to the main keys just mentioned. Each key should compliment the other and in some cases unlock the other. The many seeming contradictions of The Secret Doctrine will hopefully be resolved for the reader in as clear and succinct a manner as possible. 

The History of the Races of Humanity  

For many, to be told that the age of thinking Humanity is around 18,000,000 years, would invite some disbelief or even derision and ridicule. Such is the state of the maya within which we live, conditioned by thousands of years of wrong thinking, religious propaganda, ignorance, lack of spiritual education – and particularly the concrete mind of humanity in this Fifth Rootrace.

We live in a time of the approaching astronomical cycle of Aquarius, where the ancient mysteries are becoming reinstated after thousands of years of being hidden from the eyes and ears of the profane. The massed cry for light from Humanity has evoked a response from those who watch over and guide the race, and this cycle will coincide with the appearance of some of these great Teachers and guides of the planet. [6]

Some of the material from which this treatise draws upon is part of that evoked response, the writings of HPB, AAB and so forth. Their writings are said to constitute two thirds of the Tibetan Kalachakra teaching, translated into a form palatable for the western mind. Verily, the science of the seven rays is the tantras unveiled. The putting together of much of that material into new patterns and forms such as this study, will hopefully be part of the illumination process for the reader.

Just as we are guided by abstract symbols in dreams and meditation that make one work at evoking the intuitive faculties, likewise some of the heavily veiled and symbolic language of the arcane teachings play a similar role.

The Secret Doctrine is a jigsaw puzzle; it is the proverbial Gordian Knot which at once needs its intracacies carefully and patiently unravelled via its many pathways, and yet also requires the sword of Alexander to hack through troublesome tangles.

Jigsaw puzzles and knots are symbols of the Third Ray of Active Intelligence whilst the sword is ever the symbol of the First Ray of Will or Power. Both of these qualities are needed to explore such pioneering, leading edge spiritual teachings, yet a prime quality to bring to such a study is that of the Second Ray of Love-Wisdom. This latter ray completes the triplicity of the the ‘three rays of aspect’, the three major rays of the seven, expressed in various traditions as Siva, Vishnu and Brahma, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, Osiris, Horus and Isis. The Love-Wisdom ray gives the capacity for being receptive and open to intuitive impression, plus a love of the truth; it is thoughtfully reflective and has a clear perception and intelligence.

Collecting the Scattered Fragments

The Masters have left many isolated references to piece together:

“Not being in a position to give out a full and detailed history of the Third and Fourth Races, as many isolated facts concerning them as are permitted must be now collated together; especially those corroborated by direct as well as by inferential evidence found in ancient literature and history. [7] … The actual duration of the first two and a-half Races is withheld from all but the higher Initiates. [8]  

Much of this ‘ancient literature’ is contained within the Hindu Puranas, The Upanishads, The Rig Veda, The Mahabharata and Ramayana. This is logical, for the Hindu tradition is the oldest of our current western races, as will be demonstrated later:

“The Purânas, giving as much, and perhaps more attention to the causes than to the effects, allude to the pre-Cosmic and pre-Genetic periods... [9] … to him who can count the generations from the Manus, and the series of incarnations specified in the cases of some heroes, the meaning and chronological order are very clear in the Purânas. [10] Manu, who gives us a complete narrative of the creation, with a chronology from the divine and heroical ages, down to the appearance of man on earth. [11] ”

Likewise, in the Egyptian tradition, almost as old as the Hindu:

“…the Patriarchs, Heroes, and the Manes (see Egyptian Dynasties enumerated by the priests to Solon), the incarnated Dhyanis of a lower order, up to King Menes and the human kings of other nations; all were recorded carefully…the Dhyani-Buddhas of the two higher groups, namely, the “Watchers” or the “Architects,” furnished the many and various races with divine kings and leaders..” [12]

The most recent references for the later subraces of the Fifth Rootrace come through the Judaic tradition in the Old Testament, much of it taken from ancient Chaldean and Hindu records:

“This order of evolution is found also in Genesis (ch. 1 and 2) if one reads it in its true esoteric sense, for chapter i. contains the history of the first Three Rounds, as well as that of the first Three Races of the Fourth [round], up to that moment when Man is called to conscious life by the Elohim of Wisdom.  In the first chapter, animals, whales and fowls of the air, are created before the androgyne Adam. In the second, Adam (the sexless) comes first, and the animals only appear after him. Even the state of mental torpor and unconsciousness of the first two races, and of the first half of the Third Race, is symbolized, in the second chapter of Genesis, by the deep sleep of Adam.” [13]

“Thus, while the first, second, and third chapters of Genesis are but disfigured imitations of other cosmogonies, the fourth chapter, beginning at the sixteenth verse, and the fifth chapter to the end -- give purely historical facts; though the latter were never correctly interpreted. They are taken, word for word, from the secret Book of Numbers, of the Great Oriental Kabala. From the birth of Enoch, the appropriated first parent of modern Freemasonry, begins the genealogy of the so-called Turanian, Aryan, and Semitic families, if such they be correctly. Every woman is an euhemerized land or city; every man and patriarch a race, a branch, or a subdivision of a race. The wives of Lamech give the key to the riddle which some good scholar might easily master, even without studying the esoteric sciences.” [14]

“…every one of the antediluvian [before the flood] patriarchs stood as the representative of a race which had its place in a succession of cycles; and each of which races was less spiritual than its predecessor. Thus Noah, though a good man, could not have borne comparison with his ancestor, Enoch, who "walked with God and did not die."” [15]

"Revelation has preserved this tradition and speaks of the Seven RACES, four of which, with part of the fifth, are gone, and two have to come: The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.  And there are SEVEN Kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come. . . .” Who, acquainted in the least with the symbolical language of old, will fail to discern in the five Kings that have fallen, the four Root-Races that were, and part of the fifth, the one that is; and in the other, that “is not yet come,” the sixth and seventh coming root races, a’s also the sub-races of this, our present race?  Another still more forcible allusion to the Seven Rounds and the forty-nine root-races in Leviticus, will be found elsewhere in the Addenda, Part III." [16]

“The day when the Church will find that its only salvation lies in the occult interpretation of the Bible, may not be so far off as some imagine… such allusions to the Septenary constitution of the Earth and Man, to the seven Rounds and Races, abound in the New as in the Old Testaments, and are as visible as the sun in the heavens to him who reads both symbolically.  What do the laws in chapter xxiii., v. 15, of Leviticus apply to?  What is the philosophy of reason for all such hebdomadic offerings and symbolical calculations as:  “ye shall count…from the morrow after the Sabbath.  .  .  . that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be completed” (15),

“And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish” (18), etc. etc.  We shall be contradicted, no doubt, when we say that all these “wave” and “peace” offerings were in commemoration of the Seven “Sabbaths” of the mysteries, which Sabbaths are seven pralayas, between seven manvantaras, or what we call Rounds—for “Sabbath” is an elastic word, meaning a period of Rest of whatever nature…; the verse which follows…adds, “even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days” (forty-nine, 7 x 7, stages of activity, and forty-nine stages of rest, on the seven globes of the chain, and then comes the rest of Sabbath, the fiftieth); after which “ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord,” i.e., ye shall make an offering of your flesh or “coats of skin,” and, divesting yourselves of your bodies, ye shall remain pure spirits.” [17]

The ancient Greek tradition was no less replete with the ageless wisdom, encoded throughout its wonderful and deeply evocative mythology:

“The Greek allegories give to Atlas, or Atlantis, seven daughters (seven sub-races), whose respective names are Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Asterope, Merope, Alcyone, and Celæno. This ethnologically, as they are credited with having married gods and with having become the mothers of famous heroes, the founders of many nations and cities. Astronomically, the Atlantides have become the seven Pleiades (?) In occult science the two are connected with the destinies of nations, those destinies being shaped by the past events of their early lives according to Karmic law. Three great nations claimed in antiquity a direct descent from the kingdom of Saturn or Lemuria (confused already several thousands of years before our era with Atlantis): and these were the Egyptians, the Phœnicians (vide Sanchoniathon), and the old Greeks (vide Diodorus, after Plato). But the oldest civilized country of Asia—India—can be shown to claim the same descent likewise. Sub-races guided by Karmic law or destiny repeat unconsciously the first steps of their respective mother-races.” [18]

“The number of the Root-Races was recorded in the ancient Greek temples by the seven vowels, of which five were framed in a panel in the Initiation halls of the Adyta.” [19]  

The above passage will be particularly important for identifying the subraces of the Atlantean period. The Hindu Yugas are transformed in the Greek tradition to elements representing the ages:

“Each of Seven Races is divided into Four Ages - Golden, Silver, Bronze, Iron - so is every smallest division of such races.” [20]

Writers like Hesiod and Homer are some of the main sources of the ageless wisdom:

“Now mythology, built upon Hesiod’s Theogony, which is but a poetised record of actual traditions, or oral history, speaks of three giants, called Briareus, Kottos, and Gyges, living in a dark country where they were imprisoned by Kronos [Saturn] for their rebellion against him.  All the three are endowed by myth with a hundred arms and fifty heads, the latter standing for races, the former for sub-races and tribes.  Bearing in mind that in mythology every personage almost is a god or demi-god, and also a king or simple mortal in his second aspect; and that both stand as symbols for lands, islands, powers of nature, elements, nations, races and sub-races, the esoteric Commentary will become comprehensible.  It says that the three giants are three polar lands which have changed form several times, at each new cataclysm, or disappearance of one continent to make room for another.  The whole globe is convulsed periodically; and has been so convulsed, since the appearance of the First Race, four times.” [21]

This should suffice to give the reader a broad overview, if not a convincing argument for reading the ancient writings in this way. The following section  called Cosmogenesis describes the creation of the solar system or the ‘worlds’ in general. Some of it is very abstract and the novice reader of this material is enjoined to try and get an overview if possible. After Cosmogenesis comes Anthopogenesis, related to the Earth per se and her specific evolution – and is far more accessible for most. Some readers may want to jump to that section and come back to Cosmogenesis later. Either way, a bridge will be built in understanding, from above down, and below up.  


Phillip Lindsay © 2004.

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The Hidden History of Humanity