CHAPTER FOUR
A Planetary Frame of Reference - 4

What many modern teachings do not clearly enough state is the manner in which these cycles, subcycles and sub-subcycles interpenetrate. At least tentatively, to understand this interpenetration requires the ability to think in terms of pure numerical abstractions. This leads one to a type of consciousness, as it were, beyond the dimensions of measurable time — which does NOT mean beyond what HPB calls "infinite Duration." We have then to deal with numbers as implying what, for lack of better terms, I might call "vibratory qualities."(3)

A first Round operates in such a manner that, at the core of and through all the manifestations of existence during its vast time-span, the vibratory quality of Number 1 operates. But this same vibratory quality operates also — yet in a less fundamental manner during the first Root Race of the second, third, fourth, etc. Rounds. And by Root Race is meant a specific type of humanity rather than what today we call a race. In other words, what is called "round" refers to the Fundamental Tone of the total manifestation of existence on the planet, Earth, during an extremely long period, lasting millions or even billions of years as we presently interpret that word. During such a period seven Root Races are said to operate, theoretically succeeding one another, yet in many ways also interpenetrating during a large part of their lifespan. The vibratory quality of these Root Races does not erase the vibratory quality of the Round of which they are parts, but "tops" the latter — just as in music overtones add themselves to the Fundamental Tones without obliterating them.

Thus a fifth Root Race of, say, the fourth Round which is the planetary set-up defining the character of our present humanity — reveals the operation of the vibratory quality 4 as Fundamental, and over it and interpenetrating it, the activity of the vibratory quality 5.

This obviously is not all; for our Western civilization is also said to characterize the fifth subrace of the fifth Root Race. Thus, in our civilization, the vibratory quality 5 of our fifth Root Race, is reinforced by the vibratory quality 5 of the present subrace. As a result, the total "tone" of mankind at present can be determined by a Fundamental tone 4, and two levels of Overtones vibrating to the Number 5.

What this means is that the basic tone of Earth-nature as a whole — a tone on which the music of China was officially based — vibrates with a quality which can be symbolized by the Number 4. This is therefore also the basic vibration of human nature throughout this fourth Round. Every human being inescapably vibrates to it at the genetic root of his being; but if this human being actually is able — because of parentage, environment and, above all, "past karma" as a spiritual Entity — to resonate to and embody in his consciousness, feeling, and behavior, the vibratory quality 5, the root-vibrations of "human nature" become modified by his or her individual character and consciousness. He basically remains a Fourth-Rounder, but with an individualized Fifth Root Race consciousness; and to the latter may be superadded a further accentuation of the five, if the individual (or a whole collectivity) responds to it as a manifestation of what the coming of the fifth subrace has made possible for all human beings born within it.

The coming of a new vibratory quality does not necessarily mean that all the members of a Root Race or subrace will fully embody it; it merely opens up a new genetic and sociocultural set of possibilities. For a similar reason, there may be individual cases revealing that an individualized Soul-entity (not a mere personality) has somehow anticipated the change in vibratory quality of the planet-as-a-whole and thus of human nature-in-mass. This is possible only, it would seem, when a new vibratory quality begins to develop as an overtone of the Fundamental 4.

For instance, the fifth Root Race in a sense began when the fifth subrace of the fourth Root Race was in existence because the vibration of 5 of that subrace — to a very small extent — opened up the possibility of a basic change from fourth-Root-Race-consciousness to fifth Root-Race-consciousness. Only a few individual Souls in the fabled Atlantis (fourth Root Race) were ready to modulate from the 4 to the 5. In a similar manner, an even deeper "modulation" (or change of level of consciousness and spiritual-mental rhythm) became possible when the fifth subrace vibration strengthened further the 5 of the fifth Root Race. A few individuals, to whom the above quotation from The Mahatma Letters referred, began to operate in their minds as Fifth Rounders. As higher Minds, they had become able to radically change their vibratory quality from the Fundamental Tone 4 to the Fundamental Tone 5. The change however does not imply an overt physical change, because as bodies these Fifth-Rounders still belong to the fourth Round, still in existence at the level of the Earth and of human nature as a whole. They are therefore, in a sense, ahead of their planetary time. They are, as K.H. wrote, "a few drops of rain that announce the future coming of the monsoon."

If now we think of the vibratory quality 6, it should be clear that the beginning of the sixth subrace of the present fifth Root Race will slightly open a door through which an even more radical transformation of human beings will be made possible. We are told, however, that the change from a Fundamental 4 to a Fundamental 6 — that is, moving ahead more than one number — is not possible except as a result of a "Mystery," the "Mystery of the Buddha." What this Mystery is remains unexplained, though some have tried to explain it; but Gautama the Buddha, and his successor, Sri Sankaracharya — who in a sense "opposed" (that is, polarized) the exoteric doctrines of developing Buddhism — are said to be Sixth Rounders.(4)

What this means is therefore simply that, for some "mysterious" reason, at a time of the Earth's fourth Round at which the vibratory quality 6 was due to start operating in an active manner (at least at the higher mental levels of the one planetary Mind) Gautama was born with the capacity to bring to a focus in a body of Earth-matter, the Root-manifestation of that quality. Sri Sankaracharya, founder of the Adwaita School of Hindu philosophy, was apparently the polarizing aspect of that manifestation, and thus is also called a Sixth Rounder. Through the Buddha, the release of this vibratory quality 6 affected "the White Lodge" — that is, the state of consciousness of those who were to become the Pleroma, (the spiritual Seed Harvest) of Humanity. It is also said, after he had discarded his physical body, the "inner vehicles" of Gautama were mysteriously "kept" to become those used in the incarnation of the Christ.

Whether or not this refers to an occult fact, it should be clear that a definite relationship exists between the Buddha and the Christ — in whatever way one interprets such a relationship according to one's philosophical-occult outlook. This relationship has a simple historical and spiritual character. Buddhist missionaries were sent by the great Buddhist king of India, Asoka, to the shores of the Dead Sea in Palestine (third century B.C.); and it is not impossible that the community to which Jesus belonged (HPB said it was not the Essences, but a sect called "the Poor" which refused any possessions) received its original inspiration from these Buddhist missionaries.

In a deeper sense, Buddha in the sixth century B.C. represents the Seed of a long precessional cycle, while Christ symbolizes the Germ of a new cycle. Buddha stands for all-encompassing Wisdom; Christ for the Redeeming Love that alone can heal and "save" human beings distraught by the responsibility of an individualized consciousness burdened with the power to make "free" choices. This power implies as well the possibility and therefore ultimately the responsibility to radically transfigure the fourth Round character of human nature. This transformation, if it is total, begins with higher Knowledge and individualizing power of vibration 5 (the Kumara Mind), but it needs the release of universal love and compassion abstractly symbolized by Number 6 in order to bring an individual human being to the level of the consciousness of the White Lodge.

The initial manifestation, public and collective, of such an exalted state of consciousness demands the formation of a planetary type of society. This possibility of it is now with us, and it is the reason for the development of the Western mentality and our recent technology. The greatness of our Euro-American civilization fundamentally resides in its ability to bring any human being anywhere in contact with all others and to escape the gravitational pull of this physical globe of matter, thus allowing men to clearly see and experience the Earth as an external objective entity supporting, yet not irrevocably binding, the consciousness of Man.

I repeat that it is because of the development of the actual, concrete possibility which Man has now acquired to become an integrated whole in conscious and physical fact that the occult revelation of the last hundred years has taken place. This revelation, mainly through Theosophy, has limits and a specific character conditioned by the need and as well the relatively narrow receptivity of the people to whom it has been addressed, and of the individuals through whom it could only be formulated; but such limitations are inescapable. They simply have to be understood, if the revelation is to make sense and to lead to a further release of consciousness and power which, according to HPB is now imminent.

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3. This is the foundation of a true Numerology, of what I called long ago Arithmosophy.  Return

4. An unfortunate confusion apparently exists between the original Sankaracharya —the first of a long series of leaders of the movement he had initiated in Southern India who all took the same name — and a much later Sankaracharya who reformed the movement. Orientalists insist that this latter Sankaracharya who lived in the 8th century A.D. is the original one; but an initiated member of this branch of Hinduism, Subba Row — one of the early members of The Theosophical Society in India brought forth a seemingly convincing rebuttal of the Orientalists claim. He shows that the original Sankaracharya "was born in the year 510 B.C., 51 years and two months after the date of the Buddha's Nirvana as 477 B.C. Buddhists also refer to Buddha's nirvana and his Paranirvana at his death. cf. The Esoteric Writings of Subba Row, p. 162 and 163 (Theosophical Publishing House, 1910).  Return