Introduction
According to the writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, there will be seven root races associated with the Earth – with each root race being divided into seven sub-races.
The seven root races are noted as:
1) 1st root race – Astral/Etheric
2) 2nd root race – Hyperboreans
3) 3rd root race – Lemurians
4) 4th root race – Atlanteans
5) 5th root race – Aryans
6) 6th root race – Yet to appear
7) 7th root race – Yet to appear
To date, only five root races have appeared on the earth, and the 6th root race is predicted by theosophists to emerge in the 28th century. The 7th root race will only appear several million years in the future.
Theosophy is “a fragment of the ancient, once universal, wisdom teaching”.
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Root-Races
As described in Blavatsky’s book, “The Secret Doctrine“, (1888), root races are “stages in human evolution in the esoteric cosmology“. Some of these races were said to have existed on now-lost continents (Lemuria, Atlantis, etc).
Blavatsky’s root race model was further developed and expounded by later theosophists – most notably by William Scott-Elliot (d. 1930) in his books, “The Story of Atlantis“, (1896) and “The Lost Lemuria“, (1904). And by Annie Besant in her book, “Man: Whence, How and Whither“, (1913).
Both Scott-Elliot and Besant relied heavily upon information from Charles Webster Leadbeater who had obtained it through “astral clairvoyance”.
Further elaboration on the root races was given by Rudolf Steiner, the architect of Anthroposophy, in his work, “Atlantis and Lemuria“, (1913).
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The 1st Root Race (Astral/Etheric)
The 1st root race (Astral/Etheric) was primarily spiritual, and did not leave any physical remains – they were “ethereal”, and were consequently composed of etheric energy/matter. Their reproduction was accomplished by them dividing similar to that of amoebas. Moreover, at the time of the 1st root race the earth was still cooling; and it is said that the first mountain to rise out of the chaotic primal ocean was “Mount Meru”.
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The 2nd Root Race (Hyperborean)
The 2nd root race lived in Hyperborea which includes what is now Northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Northern Asia, and Kamchatka. The 2nd root race was colored golden yellow and the climate was tropical in consequence of the earth not having yet developed an axial tilt. The esoteric name of the 2nd root race’s continent is “Plaksha”, and they called themselves the “Kimpurshas”. This root race reproduced by budding; and today, there are no descendents.
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The 3rd Root Race (Lemurian)
The 3rd root race was the first race with physical bodies, and they were described as a black race of three eyed giants who inhabited the “lost continent” of Lemuria. It is believed that this continent existed where the Indian and Pacific oceans now are. Modern theosophists identify Lemuria with the actual ancient supercontinent of Gondwana.
The esoteric name of Lemuria is “Shalmali”, and according to Theosophists, it specifically existed in a large part of what is now the Indian Ocean, and included Australia and extended into the South Pacific Ocean. The last remnants are the Australian continent, and the islands of New Guinea and Madagascar. It is believed that Lemuria sank gradually and was eventually destroyed by increasing numbers of violently erupting volcanoes.
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The 4th Root Race (Atlantean)
According to Theosophy teachings, the 4th root race was called the “Atlantean” race. It appeared approximately 4,500,000 years ago in Africa, and originated from the 4th sub-race of the Lemurian root race. The Lemurians had colonized a part of Africa that is now inhabited by the Ashanti. Theosophists believe the Atlantean root race was physically procreated by the “Chankshusha Manu”. After the early Atlanteans developed in Africa they migrated and colonized the continent of Atlantis. The esoteric name of Atlantis is “Kusha”, and the Atlantean root race had Mongolian features.
The seven sub-races of the Atlantean root race are:
1) The Rmoahal
2) The Tlavati (Cro-Magnons)
3) The Toltec (a Theosophical term which use for “American Indians”)
4) The Turanian
5) The original Semites (e.g., the Phoenicians, etc)
6) The Akkadians
7) The Mongolian (who migrated to and colonized East Asia)
According to traditional Theosophy, the 4th root race (Atlantean) began with golden brown skin, and because some Atlanteans migrated to the Americas and Asia they gradually evolved into the red American Indian, brown Malayan, and yellow Mongolian races – as well as some groups of what, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was referred to as the “olive-skinned” Mediterranean race.
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The 5th Root Race (Aryan)
Blavatsky asserted that humanity was presently in the 5th or Aryan root race, which Theosophists believe to have emerged from the previous 4th root race (Atlantean). Thus, the origins of the 5th root race are traced back to about 100,000 years ago in Atlantis. When Blavatsky stated the Aryan root race was 1,000,000 years old, she meant that the “souls” of the people that later physically incarnated as the first Aryans, about 100,000 years ago, began their incarnation cycles in the bodies of Atlanteans 1,000,000 years ago.
Theosophists believe that the Aryan root race was physically procreated by the Vaivasvatu Manu – one of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom. The Aryan root race is white because it originates from a specific tribe of the 4th (original Semite) sub-race of the Atlanteans, which was white skinned and lived in the mountains of north-eastern Atlantis. The closest relatives to this tribe today are the Kabyle. Thus the Aryan root race overlapped the Atlantean root race, and the genesis of the 5th root race occurred towards the end of the time when the 4th root race dwelt in Atlantis.The original Aryan root race was comprised of 9,000 who migrated from Atlantis in 79,797 BC. A small group of these migrants split from the main body and went south to the shore of an inland sea in what was then a verdant and lush Sahara where they founded the “City of the Sun”. This city came to be ruled, about 70,000 BC, by an incarnation of the being who later became known as the “Ascended master, St. Germain”.
The main body of the Aryan migrants continued onwards to an island called the “white island” in the middle of what was then an inland sea in what is now the Gobi desert, where they established the “City of the Bridge”.
The “City of the Bridge” was build directly below the etheric city called “Shamballa” where Theosophists believe the governing deity of Earth, “Sanat Kumara”, dwells. Consequently, the evolution and development of the Aryan root race has been “divinely guided” by the being that Theosophists identify as “The Lord of the World”.
Theosophists believe that a large percentage of the people who live in the time of the period of the 5th root race are part of the 5th root race. However Blavatsky declared that some Semitic peoples have become “degenerate in spirituality”. She further asserted that some groups descended from the Lemurians are “semi-animal creatures”, and these include “the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians, and a mountain tribe in China.” There are also “considerable numbers of the mixed Lemuro-Atlantean peoples produced by various crossings with such semi-human stocks — e.g. the Wild Men of Borneo, the Veddhas of Ceylon, most of the remaining Australians, Bushmen, Negritos, Andaman Islanders, etc.”
All these groups mentioned by Blavatsky are part of what was in the late 19th and most of the 20th century was called the Australoid race (except for the Bushmen, part of the Capoid race, which were believed by traditional Theosophists to have been descended from the Lemurians).
Blavatsky described the 5th root race: “The Aryan races, for instance, now varying from dark brown, almost black, red-brown-yellow, down to the whitest creamy colour, are yet all of one and the same stock – the 5th root-Race – and spring from one single progenitor, which Hindus call Manu.” Theosophists believe that each root race has a separate and distinct progenitor.
The sub-races of the Aryan 5th root race include:
· 1st sub-race – the Hindu – which migrated from the “City of the Bridge” on the white island in the middle of the Gobi inland sea to India in 60,000 BC
· 2nd sub-race – the Arabian – which migrated from the “City of the Bridge” to Arabia in 40,000 BC
· 3rd sub-race – the Persian – which migrated from the “City of the Bridge” to Persia in 30,000 BC
· 4th sub-race – the Celts – which migrated from the “City of the Bridge” to Western Europe beginning in 20,000 BC (the Mycenaean Greeks are regarded as an offshoot of the Celtic sub-race that colonized Southeast Europe)
· 5th sub-race – the Teutonic – which also migrated from the “City of the Bridge” to what is now Germany beginning in 20,000 BC (the Slavs are regarded as an offshoot of the Teutonic sub-race that colonized Russia and surrounding areas).
· 6th sub-race – According to Blavatsky the 6th sub-race of the Aryan 5th root race will begin to evolve in the area of the United States in the early 21st century. This 6th sub-race of the Aryan root race will be called the Australo-American sub-race and is believed by Theosophists to be now arising from the Teutonic sub-race of the Aryan root race in Australia and in the Western United States (Many individuals of the new sub-race will be born in California.) and its surrounding nearby areas (i.e. the Australo-American sub-race is presently in the process of arising from the Anglo-American, Anglo-Canadian, Anglo-Australian and presumably also the Anglo-New Zealander ethnic groups). The 6th or Australo-American subrace will “possess certain psychic powers, and for this the pituitary body will be developed, thus giving an additional sense, that of cognising astral emotions in the ordinary waking consciousness. We may say that in general the 6th sub-race will bring in wisdom and intuition, blending all that is best in the intelligence of the 5th sub-race and the emotion of the 4th.”
· 7th sub-race – these will be the survivors of the “new great cataclysm” that will soon destroy the Aryan root race. Thus, the Seventh sub-race has yet to come into existence; they still do not exist, but they will.
It is believed by Theosophists that the root races evolve from the sub-races of the same number; thus the 6th root race will evolve from the 6th sub-race of the 5th or Aryan root race, just as the 5th or Aryan root race evolved from the 5th sub-race (the Semitic) of the 4th or Atlantean root race 100,000 years ago.
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The 6th Root Race
According to C W Leadbeater, a colony will be established in Baja California by the Theosophical Society under the guidance of the “Masters of the Ancient Wisdom”. This will take place in the 28th century for the intensive selective eugenic breeding of the 6th root race.
The Master Morya will physically incarnate in order to be the Manu, or “progenitor”, of this new root race. It is further believed that, by that time, the world will be powered by nuclear power and there will be a single world government which is led by a person who will be the reincarnation of Julius Caesar.
Further, tens millennia in the future, a new continent will arise in the Pacific Ocean that will be the home of the 6th root race. California, west of the San Andreas Fault, will separate from the mainland of North America and will become the “Island of California” off the eastern coast of the new continent.
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The 7th Root Race
In time, several million years into the future, the 7th root race will rise from the 7th sub-race of the 6th root race on the future continent that the 6th root race will be living on that will arise from the Pacific Ocean. The continent they will inhabit is esoterically called “Pushkara”.
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Further Reading
For more information refer to, “The Secret Doctrine“, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1888.