Appendix III: the Pattern of Evolution
THE PATTERN OF EVOLUTION
A brief introduction to the esoteric teachings

image: ‘afterlife’ © Erace Lestis
The evolution of present humanity unfolds in 7 Epochs and 7 Root Races:[1]
1. POLARIAN: First Root Race
2. HYPERBOREAN: Second Root Race
3. LEMURIA: Third Root Race
4. ATLANTIS: Fourth Root Race
Comprehends seven sub-races:
1. The Rmoahals
2. The Tlavatli people
3. The Toltecs
4. The Primal Turanians
5. The Primal Semites
6. The Akkadians
7. The Mongols
5. POST-ATLANTEAN (The Aryans): Fifth Root Race: Manas culture
Comprehends 7 Cultural Ages and 7 Sub-Races:
· Old Indian (8000-6000BC). 1. Indian Sub-race
· Persian (5000-4000BC). 2. Persian Sub-race
· Egypto-Chaldean (2900-747BC). 3. Babylonian-Egyptian Sub-race
· Graeco-Roman (747BC-1413AD). 4. Graeco-Roman Sub-race
· Anglo-Germanic (1413-3573). 5. Germanic Sub-race
· Aquarian (3573-5733). 6. Slavonic Sub-race
· American (5733-7900). 7. American Sub-race
6. SIXTH EPOCH: Sixth Root Race
7. SEVENTH EPOCH: Seventh Root Race
1. The POLARIAN Epoch:
Man first entered earthly evolution during the Polarian epoch, when the Earth was still united with the Sun and the Moon, forming with them a single astral entity in which were active the beings of the Hierarchies. In the midst of this globe formed a vast etheric warmth organism from which innumerable soul forms (the germs of humanity) sprouted out, resounding and radiant in inner light. Soul-forms were composed initially of fine etheric warmth and air, living within the fluid atmosphere of the earth, and were regulated at first from without by forces of love. Under their influence, human germs progressively developed a plantlike consciousness of images, feelings and desires (“The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” Gen. 1:2). Gradually the warmth organism condensed to a gaseous condition, the process evoking spiritual sound within the human bodies, shaping them like a cloud with a calyx opening upwards.
2. HYPERBOREAN:
New conditions and decreasing temperature forced the Sun beings to separate from the earth-moon globe, shining back their influence from outer space and forming within the soul-forms the first rudiments of the organs of sight (“And God said, let there be light” Gen. 1:3). Organs of warmth, hearing and touch also began to form. Contraction progressed and caused the forming of a watery substance flowing in and out of human bodies. The body of man was shaped by sound like a fish in the water below, while above it consisted of vapour touched by light. The moon-earth began to spin and “God divided the light from the darkness” (Gen. 1:4). During this epoch the astral body of man was the bearer of the most savage lusts. The human beings were still entirely group-souls, but of the most sensual order with the worst instincts.
3. LEMURIA:
Main task: the development of imagination and will forces
The Lemurian Continent was situated south of Asia, extending approximately from Ceylon to Madagascar. Southern Asia and parts of Africa also belonged to it.
The earth-moon globe was then a kind of turbulent, fiery mass, in which the modern mineral was for the most part dissolved and fluid, out of which developed the first island masses. The ground was then thin, undermined everywhere by volcanic forces which broke forth in smaller or larger streams. Mighty volcanoes existed almost everywhere and developed a continuous destructive activity, forcing men to reckon with such a fiery activity in everything they did. Upon these lands there wandered, half hopping half hovering, the forefathers of men. During the first half of the Lemurian epoch, man did not live actually on the earth but in the sphere above, in a finer, rarefied corporeality. Hermaphrodite bodies first developed out of the whole earth-moon globe, and swam in the atmosphere above the watery surface. The substance of man’s physical body was flexible, gelatinous, hardly distinguishable outwardly from the surroundings. While the physical body was soft, pliable and transparent, man’s etheric bodies were grotesque and animal-like, even dragon-like below. They remained in the atmosphere, whilst primal plants and animal forms began to touch the solid earth forming below.
The highest beings were a kind of human-animal, with physical, etheric, astral bodies, and the tendency to the ego, but not yet the ego itself, beings that were progressively adapted to take up the divine germ. The more the human sheaths absorbed the divine germ, the more they became individual and independent. Memory was not yet developed among the first Lemurians, nor did they have a language. Communication consisted in a kind of “thought reading” between men and the forming of “ideas” proceeded directly from the surrounding nature and natural phenomena: the inner life of plants and animals ‘spoke’ to Lemurians, who were thus able to understood them and employ them in building or the making of artefacts. As an example, when the Lemurian built something he did not need to calculate the load-limit of a tree trunk or the weight of a stone; he could see how much the tree trunk could bear, or where the stone in view of its mass would fit, where it would not. The Lemurians built without engineering knowledge on the basis of their faculty of imagination which acted with the sureness of a kind of instinct. In addition, they could increase their physical power at will, lifting enormous loads merely through the effort of their will. While men had special powers over their will, women could, through the faculty of imagination, be in alliance with the active forces of nature. Women became able, as it were, not only to absorb in their souls the living spiritual powers active in nature but also to interpret them. As memory slowly developed, so did a kind of natural language emerged as songs and vocal rhythms among women first, who were able to translate in sound the inner life-force they experienced in nature. It was among women that the first ideas of ‘good and evil’ arose, thus marking the beginning of law and morals (the prominence of the feminine soul became particularly strong in the last Lemurian period and continued into the Atlantean times. The smaller, more developed groups who separated off from the vast animalism of Lemuria and became the founders of the Atlantean civilizations, were in some cases lead by women).
As hardening progressed, Lucifer begun to make its influence felt by opening man’s eye and ear to the sense world (the Fall of Man and the beginning of good and evil).
The Luciferic influence had a twofold effect upon man. A certain enthusiasm could be kindled in him to do one thing or another, but such a zeal was not inspired by his ego, nor influenced by the higher beings working in him. Secondly, it was made possible for man to secede from the higher beings, to do evil, but also to have freedom.
Owing to the fact that man’s astral body was permeated by the luciferic beings, he was led prematurely down to the earth from the atmosphere above it (called Paradise in the Bible).
After the moon separated off and her most hardening and influencing sensual forces had been taken away, the earth took on gradually its present solid shape and as human bodies became upright, the sexes divided. Human karma began.
The process of transforming man from a gill-breather to a lung-breather (from the swimming condition to the upright position) lasted millions of years. Man became able, as it were, of receiving into himself the first rudiments of the higher principles, the Spirit-self or Manas. The metamorphosis of the swimming bladder into the lungs is expressed in the Bible in the words: “And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul”.
In the Lemurian epoch it lay within man’s power to control fire and the seminal forces of animals – indeed it actually came the moment when animal forms were transformed into human forms. The magical influence that the human will had upon the fiery-oceans and upon the substances and forces of nature caused the fiery-masses of earth to become so fierce and turbulent to tear up the thin earth crust. Through his evil lusts and magic will, man set the forces of nature ablaze. Lemuria ended in a fire-catastrophe caused by uncontrolled human passions. The greatest part of the Lemurian root race declined or was extinguished, some groups became stunted men and their descendants still inhabit certain parts of the earth today as savage tribes. That portion of advanced Lemurian humanity which maintained a high evolutionary potential was saved and migrated to the West, to a continent lying between the present Europe and America, namely, Atlantis.
4. ATLANTIS
Main task: the development of the “I”
The more advanced souls (monads) who had gone to Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Vulcan and so on, during periods of desolation (when conditions on earth were not suitable to reincarnation or there were not suitable physical bodies) came down to the continent of Atlantis and mixed with the migrating groups from Lemuria. It was then that human ‘races’ first developed.
Man in early Atlantean times had still a soft and animal-like body, without a solid skeleton. He stood in intimate relation with Nature and a typical Atlantean settlement would resemble a garden in which the houses were built of trees with artfully intertwined branches. Men in Atlantis were gifted with strong, magical soul and psychic force, able to ‘shape’ or ‘adjust’ natural phenomena. They could, as an example, repulse a cannon ball simply by the use of psychic force or even increase or decrease their physical stature according to their wishes. The Atlantean possessed a certain magic influence upon, especially, the growth of plants (if man lifted his hand, which at that time had a quite different form, above a plant, he was able to bring it to rapid growth).
It was through their power to control and master the life-force in the plant kingdom that Atlanteans were also able to propel their vehicles, “air ships” which floated a short distance above the ground but could also be raised above the height of the mountain ranges which existed at that time. Except for a certain number of initiates who were led to central Asia, degeneration set amid the rigours of the Ice Age and tectonic movements. The epoch ended with the sinking of Atlantis, caused by the Ahrimanic influence asserting itself and instigating man to a prolonged misuse of esoteric knowledge and the practice of black magic.
Within every root race can be distinguished seven sub-races, and the development of the Atlanteans also unfolds in seven sub-races. One must not think that a sub-race immediately disappears when a new one develops. Each one may maintain itself for a long time while others are developing beside it.
The seven sub-races of the Atlantean root race can be classified as follows:
1. The Rmoahals. Memory began to form among the first sub-race and also certain ‘feelings’ which were unknown to Lemurians, for example attachment to what had been experienced in the past. With memory, the use of language began to evolve and new bonds were made between men and nature and among men themselves. Because the Rmoahals were still gifted with strong soul powers, they not only named things, but their words contained a power which acted over things and over their fellow-men. Words were thus magic and curative, the Rmoahals could advance the growth of plants or even tame the rage of animals at will by simply speaking forth certain words. They considered both Nature and language to be sacred and most innocently, the Rmoahals ascribed their powers not really to themselves as to the divine nature acting within them.
2. The Tlavatli people. This second sub-race began to feel instead the power of divine nature acting within them as their own personal value. Ambition and merit made themselves felt among the Tlavatli people and regal, privileged ranks came to be established by certain especially gifted individuals, who felt that their deeds and knowledge – which they put at the service of their community – ought to be preserved and honoured also beyond their death. A kind of religious veneration (ancestors cult) for those leaders emerged among many tribes. The memory or remembrance of the ancestors continued well into later Atlantean times and took the most varied forms.
3. The Toltecs. If previously the formation of groups depended wholly upon natural circumstances and common descent, with the Tlavatlis first and the Toltecs especially, powerful personalities began to emerge as leaders and founders of social communities. Harmonious communal life and the forming of a state became fully developed under the third sub-race, the Toltecs, the splendour of their civilization based on the fact that common memories among men brought about order and harmony naturally. The leadership and government of these communities was transmitted from one generation to the next and a strong attachment to the deeds of the ancestors was then developed, their cult not to be forgotten by the whole line of descent. By means of a system of education which at that time never failed the transmission of power and competence from father to son, regal ranks were generally preserved throughout their long lasting kingdoms. Communities flourished and progressed greatly from one generation to another, their glory further enhanced by the fact that personal experience also acquired an increasing role in the building of new social settlements. Conditions improved each time a group of men separated from the other in order to establish a new community, for those who would become leaders maintained remembrance of what they had experienced in the old situation, but in addition they would try out something new. Those powerful Atlantean kings and leaders who then came to rule vast communities of men were in most cases initiated in sacred sciences and magic arts, so that personal ability was fully supported by the sureness of ancestral wisdom.
4. The Primal Turanians. The kings of the fourth Atlantean sub-race became so inebriated by the power they themselves contributed to create that they turned ambition into marked selfishness, rushing wildly to the satisfaction of their appetites and desires. The greater the wealth of a ruler became, the more he would exploit it for himself to the point of self-destruction or by bringing his kingdom to ruin.
5. The Primal Semites. Logical thinking and the faculty of thought developed among the Primal Semites as a restraining effect on selfish personal wishes. The men of the fifth sub-race began to listen to an inner voice and the faculty of judgement developed. Wishes and desires were then regulated in accordance with what men felt as to what was right to do or not to do. They began to calculate, combine and compare experiences. What was won within however – the faculty of thought and judgement – was lost with respect to the control of external natural forces. The men of the fifth sub-race lost mastery over certain natural life-processes and their psychic-soul powers also decreased greatly, but it was just through this that the germ of the further development of mankind was produced: from this sub-race the most gifted part was selected to form the germ of the fifth root race, the Aryans, whose mission is to complete the development of the faculty of thought.
6. The Akkadians. Logical thinking was further developed by the sixth sub-race who became enterprising people with an inclination to colonization. It was especially commerce that helped to improve the faculty of thought and judgment. The rise of intelligence, individualism and personal opinions made it necessary at some point the creation of thought-out laws and regulations to preserve social harmony and order and the Akkadians were the first to give origin to regulations of justice and law.
7. The Mongols. Thinking was also developed by the last Atlantean sub-race, the Mongols, who gave much reverence and relevance to remembrance and what is oldest, in the belief that it worked better than the new.
5. POST-ATLANTEAN: The Aryan or 5th Root Race
Main task: development of “Manas”
Comprehends 7 cultural age and 7 sub-races
· Ancient Indian (8000-6000BC). First (5th Root Race) sub-race
Main concern: cultivation of the Etheric-body
The character of old Indian culture was to retain Oneness with nature as man was initially still endowed with picture-consciousness, through which he saw the spiritual beings living in nature (undines, sylphs, salamanders etc). The outside world and the world of the senses were ‘maya’ in the eyes of ancient Indian sages who still had communion with spiritual beings. The two points in the head (the pineal gland and the brain) only came to coincide later on, when finally ‘intelligence’ developed. The going back towards the dream-consciousness of the Atlanteans has been preserved in many Oriental spiritual trainings.
Those groups who migrated from Atlantis to Europe (and did not reach India) gave life to civilizations where the Atlantean power to see into the spiritual world was echoed in myths and folk-tales. The Druidic/Germanic sagas and myths for example, are relics of what was still seen by the old Atlanteans within the vapour-masses of the earth.
· Ancient Persian – Iran (5000-4000BC). Second (5th Root Race) sub-race
Main concern: cultivation of the Astral body
Whereas the Indian culture turns sharply away from reality, the Persian is aware that he must reckon with it. For the first time man appears as a worker, who knows that he is not merely to strive for knowledge with his spiritual forces, but that he is to use them for shaping the earth. At first the earth met him as a sort of hostile element which he must overcome. The Persian learnt to know nature purely as a field of labour.
· Egypto-Chaldean (2900-747BC). Third (5th Root Race) sub-race
Main task: development of the Sentient Soul
Includes Assyrian, Babylonian, Semitic and Hibernian cultures
Man learns to recognize a law in nature itself and does not see the physical as an opposing force. Looking at the stars above he saw both the gods who dwelled in them and he understood the laws behind them. He thus gave life to a science where wisdom, star-knowledge and knowledge of the gods were united.
The Chaldean-Egyptian-Babylonian civilizations were able to incorporate the spiritual observed in geometry and star-knowledge into the soil of the earth (into agriculture, architecture etc).
· Graeco-Roman (747BC-1413AD). Fourth (5th Root Race) sub-race
Main task: Development of the Intellectual Soul
Man advances to the point of incorporating in civilization that which he himself experiences as spiritual. In the work of art, in moulded matter man imprints his own spirit into substance, whether in sculpture or in drama. The quality of fantasy and imagination the Greeks had, which also influenced their social life, was transformed into joy in the earthly. Here we also find the first beginning of human city planning. In Egypt the priests looked at the stars and sought their laws. What took place in the heavens they reproduced in what they built. During the Graeco-Roman period we find the progressive transition from ancient priest-wisdom to human-wisdom, judgement and cleverness. Man sent forth what he had in his soul into the great works of art, into drama and jurisprudence. Formerly all justice was derived from the stars. Republican Rome is the clearest example of attained human wisdom, the Romans became a nation of law-givers because there men created justice according to their own requirements.
· Anglo-Germanic (1413-3573). Fifth (5th Root Race) sub-race
Main task: to complete the development of the Spiritual Soul
Man sinks deeper and deeper into materialism and materiality. If the Greek in his work of art has created an idealised image of his soul-life and poured it into the human form; if the Roman in his jurisprudence has created something that still further signifies personal requirements, our age culminates instead in machines which are solely a materialist expression of mere personal human needs. Mankind sinks lower and lower from heaven, our age being the most involved in matter, where spirit is merely utilized for the satisfying of material needs.
There is good reason to have come down from spiritual heights, for man must go through this descent in order to find the way up to spirituality again, but this time out of his own way and strength. The densification of man in the cosmos is inexorably connected with his descent into the world of matter and the development of egoism. Egoism has a good and bad side, for it is the foundation of human independence and freedom, but its dark side is to be the foundation of all that is bad and evil. Man had and has still, to go through the force of egoism if he has to learn to do good out of his own freewill.
· Aquarian (3573-5733). Sixth (5th Root Race) sub-race
Main tasks: Reception of Spirit-self into the spiritual soul
Just as man has descended to the lowest level, the physical-material plane, he has now to ascend again to spirituality. As the descent is linked with the predominance of egoism so does the ascent depend on men’s selflessness, their feeling of sympathy for one another becoming stronger and stronger, the development of universal human love bringing the old racial and blood ties to an end. There must enter into human relationships a spiritual, brotherly bond between soul and soul, between one human being and another. It will be a fundamental task of this age to develop the following conditions : a) world brotherhood; 2) freedom of thought; 3) pneumatology (spiritual science); in order for the Spirit-self to descend upon man’s purified astral body.
From Eastern Europe during this sixth cultural age, will come forth the evolutionary impulse for the birth of the Sixth Root Race (Sixth Epoch).
· American (5733-7900). Seventh (5th Root Race) sub-race
Main task: bring evil and egoism to a culmination on earth
This age contains no principle of progress. A kind of hypertrophy comes about. The physical earth becomes a corpse surrounded by a ghastly brood of evil beings, hybrid automata half mineral half plant who will live side by side with the dead intellect of human beings, while those members of progressive humanity will have by now acquired a ‘light body’ and will thus be able to live in the higher ethers of the earth.
The War of All against All will cause a revolution of the elements analogous to that which put an end to Atlantis.
6. SIXTH EPOCH. Sixth Root Race
The physical body becomes an image of the soul for man has conquered new, extraordinary powers, for example the ability to send thoughts out in the ether or self-create himself (self-reproduction); man’s spiritual vision will be able to see back and forward, all life on earth will have passed to a plastic-astral condition.
Mankind becomes visibly divided into two great streams, the good and the evil.
Karma comes to an end. End of physical body. Reproduction in the clouds.
Etheric-moral atmosphere will have formed around the earth, where the Sons of Fire and Light (Angels & Archangels) will be able to dwell. Towards the end of this age there will take place the final stages of the Apocalypse and the Day of Judgment: mankind splits into two groups, those able to ascend to Devachan and those who will follow the Beast (666)[2].
7. SEVENTH EPOCH. Seventh Root race.
Humanity will be completely purified. The human kingdom will attain its zenith. The human being will have become a God and will carry his development over to further evolutionary stages (called Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan in Spiritual Science).
Summary:
Earth is passing through the fourth condition of consciousness (4.EARTH ), the fourth condition of life (4.Created Forms = Mineral), the fourth stage of form (4.Physical), while humanity is passing through the Fifth Great Epoch (5.POST-ATLANTEAN), the fifth sub-race (Anglo-Germanic) of the Fifth Root Race (The Aryan) and the fifth Post-Atlantean cultural age
(…)
The Hierarchies.
According to Rudolf Steiner there are nine ranks of celestial beings above humanity and below the Trinity, or God, the One – also known as Three in One. The nine ranks are referred to, in groups of three, as the first, second and third hierarchies.
In the Christian esoteric tradition they are called as follows:
First Hierarchy:
Seraphim – name given by Rudolf Steiner: Spirits of Love
Cherubim – “ “ “ “ : Spirits of the Harmonies
Thrones – name given Spirits of Will
Second Hierarchy:
Kyriotetes (Dominions) – name given by Rudolf Steiner: Spirits of Wisdom
Dynamis (Virtues) – name given: Spirits of Movement
Exustai (Powers, Elhoim) – name given: Spirits of Form
Third Hierarchy
Archai (Principalities) – name given: Spirits of Personality or Time Spirits
Archangels – name given Fire-Spirits
Angels – name given Sons of Life or of Twilight
There is a tenth hierarchy of ‘celestial beings’, the human race.
Angels are concerned that we find our individual destinies, which will lead us to our own unique true I or higher self. They provide us with the experiences (whether harmonic or disharmonic) most suitable to our spiritual development.
“Some Archangels are responsible for the development of languages. As ‘Folk Spirits’ they guide the destinies of nations. Archangels have as their field of perception the souls of people belonging to a particular folk or nation. If we imagine a being great enough to encompass and perceive the souls of 250 millions Americans, for example, we have an idea of the magnitude of consciousness of an Archangel”.
It is possible for individuals and groups to ‘rise up’ in consciousness and become vehicles for specific tasks of a ‘folk spirit’, in the same way Archangels can work through individuals, despite personal weaknesses. Steiner warns that the concept of race is not to be confused with that of people, folk or nation. A nation can consist of more than one race and a race can be split up into more than one folk or people.
Adversary powers. Angels sometimes play a role as adversary powers. Lucifer, for example, brings too much light, while Ahriman (Satan) too much darkness. Those fallen angels represent ‘evil’ which must always be opposed, however it should not be ignored the fact that they provide the necessary resistance which human being must overcome in order to achieve the goal of evolution on earth, which, Steiner says, is: true freedom and love.
Archai. They are concerned with the development of humanity as a whole and govern the succession of great epochs of humanity’s cultural development. Each epoch is thus guided by a different ‘Archai’ or, as Steiner calls them ‘Spirits of Time’ (Zeitgeister). The Archai regularly call upon the specific talents of certain Archangels who then work in sequence to give humanity the benefit of their unique gifts. There are seven Archangels who work in turn. They are: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Zachariel, Anael, Samael and Oriphiel. They form the basis for the Western esoteric tradition of the ‘Mystical Chronology’.
Note: All Information given is meant to provide a brief, concise introduction to the evolution of mankind throughout enormously long periods of time. The content of Appendix III is based on the work of Rudolf Steiner – the founder of Anthroposophy and Spiritual Science – presented in his texts (Cosmic Memory; Occult Science) and lectures, where he warns that his reading into the ‘Akashic Records’ should not be considered an exact description of what was or happened; but, rather, an indication of how things went. Although selected with care, we believe the content of this appendix to be nevertheless partial and simply indicative. Further reading is necessary to grasp the issue correctly and more in depth. Other relevant works by Rudolf Steiner are given in the bibliography.
Appendix III (here in draft version) is printed in CELESTIAL EARTH by Erace Lestis
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[1] The whole course of evolution comprehends 7 Planetary conditions (Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth – where we are now – Jupiter, Venus, Vulcan). Within each planetary condition there are 7 Rounds, within each round there develop 7 Great Epochs, 7 Root Races, 7 Sub-races and 7 conditions of form (globes). Earth is now passing through the Fourth condition of consciousness (or fourth planetary condition – Earth), the fourth Round (the Mineral) and the fourth condition of form (the Physical), while humanity is passing through the Fifth Great Epoch (Post-Atlantean) and fifth sub-race (The Anglo-Germanic) of the Fifth Root Race (The Aryan).
For bibliographical references, see note p 253.
[2] ‘Following the beast’ means assuming animal forms.




