Editing Root race (section)

==Root races, epochs and sub-races==

According to Blavatsky's writings, there are seven root races assembling for our Earth; each root race is divided into seven subraces. Only five root races have appeared so far;{{sfn|Трефилов|1994|p=236}} the sixth is expected to emerge in the 28th century. [[Francis Bacon]] (whom theosophy considers to be the legendary [[St. Germain (Theosophy)|Count of St. Germain]]) in his work ''The New Atlantis'' (1627) describes a potential future civilization which lives on a land called Bensalem.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

===The first root race (Polarian)===

The first root race was "[[Etheric plane|ethereal]]", i.e. they were composed of etheric matter.  They reproduced by dividing like an [[amoeba]].  Earth was still cooling at that time. The first mountain to arise out of the stormy primeval ocean was [[Mount Meru]].<ref name="Powell-31">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 188-192. (Ch. 31. "The Earth: The first root-race.)</ref>

===The second root race (Hyperborean)===
The second root race lived in [[Hyperborea]]. The second root race was colored golden yellow.  Hyperborea included what is now Northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Northern Russia and [[Kamchatka]].  The climate was [[Tropical climate|tropical]] because Earth had not yet developed an [[axial tilt]].  The esoteric name of their continent is ''Plaksha'';<ref name="Powell-11"/> they called themselves the ''Kimpurshas''.  They reproduced by [[budding]].<ref name="Powell-32">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 193-196. (Ch. 32. "The Earth: The second root-race.)</ref>

===The third root race (Lemurian)===
[[File:Map of Lemuria.jpg|thumb|Map of Lemuria superimposed over the modern continents from William Scott-Elliot, ''The Story of Atlantis and Lost Lemuria''.]]
The third root race, the Lemurian lived in [[Lemuria (continent)|Lemuria]].  The esoteric name of Lemuria is ''Shalmali''.<ref name="Powell-11"/> Lemuria, according to Theosophists, existed in a large part of what is now the Indian Ocean including Australia and extending into the South Pacific Ocean; its last remnants are the Australian continent, the island of [[New Guinea]], and the island of [[Madagascar]].  Lemuria sank gradually and was eventually destroyed by incessantly erupting volcanoes.<ref name="Powell-33">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 193-215. (Ch. 33. "The Earth: The third root-race: Lemurian.)</ref> In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was thought by geologists that the [[Age of the Earth|age of the Earth]] was only about 200 million years (because [[radioactive dating]] had not yet come into use), so the [[geological epoch]]s were believed to have occurred at a much later time than is thought to be the case today.  According to traditional Theosophy, the Lemurian root race began 34½ million years ago, in the middle of what was then believed to be the [[Jurassic]]; thus, the people of Lemuria coexisted with the [[dinosaur]]s. The Lemurian race was much taller and bigger than our current race. The first three subraces of the Lemurians reproduced by laying eggs, but the fourth subrace, beginning 16½ million years ago, began to reproduce like modern humans.<ref name="Powell-33"/> As Lemuria was slowly submerged due to volcanic eruptions, the Lemurians colonized the areas surrounding Lemuria, namely Africa, Southern India and the East Indies. The descendants of the Lemurian root race, according to traditional Theosophy, include the [[Capoid race]], the [[Bantu people|Congoid race]], the [[Dravidians]], and the [[Australoid race]].

===The fourth root race (Atlantean)===
This race inhabited Atlantis.

====Subraces of the Atlantean root race====

The fourth root race, the Atlantean, according to Theosophy arose approximately 4,500,000 years ago in Africa from the fourth subrace of the Lemurians in a part of Africa that had been colonized by that subrace in the area now inhabited by the [[Ashanti people|Ashanti]].<ref name="Powell-35">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 219-224. Ch. 35. "The fourth (Atlantean) root-race: The Rmoahal".</ref> According to Theosophists the first Atlantean subrace was the result of the last, or seventh Lemurian subrace, Chankshusha Manu, which migrated first to the south of the Atlantean continent and, from there, migrated further north.  The esoteric name of [[Atlantis]] is ''Kusha''.<ref name="Powell-11">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 55-59. (Ch. 11. "Races and Sub-races".)</ref> The Atlantean root race had [[Mongoloid race|Mongolian]] features; they began with bronze skin and gradually evolved into the [[Color terminology for race|red]] [[American Indian race|American Indian]], [[Color terminology for race|brown]] [[Malayan race|Malayan]], and [[Color terminology for race|yellow]] [[Mongoloid race|Mongolian]] races, because some Atlanteans eventually migrated to the Americas and Asia. The seven subraces of the Atlantean root race were
#the Rmoahal (A mix of [[Homo Ergaster]]/[[Homo rhodesiensis]] in Africa)
#the Tlavati ([[Homo rhodesiensis]] variant outside of Africa)
#the [[Toltec]] ([[Homo Heidelbergensis]] as Rhodesiensis lost their African qualities)
#the [[Turanian]] (An ancestor of both [[Neanderthals]] and [[Denisovans]], likely later stage [[Heidelbergensis]])
#the original [[Semites]] (European [[Neanderthals]])
#the [[Akkadian]]s (West Asian [[Neanderthals]]), and
#the [[Mongolian]] ([[Denisovans]]), which migrated to and colonized [[Central Asia]], [[East Asia]], and [[Southeast Asia]].

The descendants of the Atlanteans according to traditional Theosophy include those of the [[Mongoloid race|Mongolian race]], the [[Malayan race]], and the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indian race]] as well as some people of what in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was called the "[[Olive skin|olive-skinned]]" [[Mediterranean race]].<ref name="Powell-35"/><ref name="Powell-36">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 25-26. (Ch. 36. "The second Atlantean sub-race: the Tlavatli".)</ref><ref name="Powell-37"/><ref name="Powell-38"/><ref name="Powell-39">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 252-281.</ref>

====The civilization of Atlantis====
{{anchor|civil-atl}}<!-- This section is linked from [[Maitreya (Theosophy)]] -->
{{Main|Atlantis}}

According to Powell, the long period of time when Atlantis was ruled by the Toltecs (the ancestors of the [[Indigenous people of the Americas|Amerindians]]), the civilization of Atlantis was at its height. This was the period between about 1,000,000 and 900,000 years ago, called the ''[[Golden Age]] of Atlantis''. The Atlanteans had many luxuries and conveniences. Their capital city was called ''The City of the Golden Gates''. At its height, it had two million inhabitants. There were extensive [[aqueduct (water supply)|aqueduct]]s leading to the city from a mountain lake. The Atlanteans had [[airship]]s that could seat two to eight people. The [[economic system]] was [[Socialism|socialist]] like that of the [[Incas]]. Atlanteans were the first to develop organized warfare. The military deployed air battleships that contained 50 to 100 fighting men. These air battleships deployed [[Chemical warfare|poison gas]] bombs. The [[infantry]] fired fire-tipped arrows. The Toltecs on Atlantis worshipped the [[Sun worship|Sun]] in temples as grand as those of [[ancient Egypt]] that were decorated in bright colors. The sacred word used in [[meditation]] was [[Tau]] (this was the equivalent of the Aryan sacred word [[Om|AUM]]). As noted above, the Toltecs colonized all of North America and South America and thus became the people we know as the Amerindians.<ref name=Powell-37>Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 227-236. (Ch. 37. "The Third Atlantean Subrace: The Toltec".)</ref><ref name=Powell-38>Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 237-251. (Ch. 38. "The Civilization of Atlantis".)</ref> The downfall of Atlantis started when some of the Toltecs began to practice [[black magic]] about 850,000 BC, corrupted by the dragon "Thevetat",<ref>{{cite book | title=Atlantis and the Cycles of Time: Prophecies, Traditions, and Occult Revelations | first=Joscelyn | last=Godwin | publisher=Inner Traditions / Bear & Co | year=2010 | isbn=978-1594772627 | page=68 }}</ref> remembered as [[Devadatta]], the opponent of [[Buddha]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Five Years of Theosophy | editor=George Robert Stow Mead (1863-1933) | publisher=Echo Library | year=2007 | isbn=978-1406815283 | page=181 }}</ref> The people began to become selfish and [[Economic materialism|materialistic]]. Soon thereafter, the Turanians (the ancestors of the people we now know as the [[Turkic peoples]]) became dominant in much of Atlantis. The Turanians continued the practice of black magic which reached its height about 250,000 BC and continued until the final sinking of Atlantis, although they were opposed by [[Magic (paranormal)|white magic]]ians. The Master [[Morya (Theosophy)|Morya]] incarnated as the Emperor of Atlantis in 220,000 BC to oppose the black magicians.<ref name="Besant-127">Besant/Leadbeater, ''Man: How, Whence, and Whither?'', p. 127-137. (Ch. 9 "Black Magic in Atlantis".)</ref> The black magicians used [[magical spell]]s to breed human-animal [[Chimera (genetics)#Research|chimeras]]. They possessed an army composed of chimeras that were composites composed of a human body with the heads of fierce predators such as lions, tigers and bears, that ate enemy corpses on the battlefield.<ref name="Besant-127"/> The war between the white magicians and the [[black magic]]ians continued until the end of Atlantis. The [[Ascended master|Masters of the Ancient Wisdom]] [[telepathy|telepathically]] warned their disciples (the white magicians) to flee Atlantis in ships while there was still time to get out before the final [[wiktionary:Cataclysm|cataclysm]]. As noted above, the final sudden submergence of Atlantis due to earthquakes occurred in 9,564 BC .<ref name="Powell-50"/>

==={{anchor|aryas}}The fifth root race (Aryan)<!-- Section linked from [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophy]] [[Aryan]] -->===

====Early beginnings of the Aryan root race====

Blavatsky asserted humanity is now in the fifth or [[Aryan race|Aryan]] root race, which Theosophists believe to have emerged from the previous fourth root race (Atlantean root race) beginning about 100,000 years ago in Atlantis. (According to Powell, when Madame Blavatsky stated the Aryan root race was 1,000,000 years old, she meant that the [[soul]]s of the people that later physically incarnated as the first Aryans about 100,000 years ago began to incarnate in the bodies of Atlanteans 1,000,000 years ago.<ref name=Powell-37/> However, another way of interpreting this is that Nature began to create the Aryan race before the final cataclysms.) Theosophists believe the Aryan root race was physically progenerated by the Vaivasvatu Manu, one of the [[Masters of the Ancient Wisdom]] (compare and contrast with   [[Vaivasvata_Manu|Vaivasvata Manu of Hinduism]]).  The present-day ethnic group most closely related to the new race is the [[Kabyle people|Kabyle]].  The small band of only 9,000 people constituting the then small Aryan root race migrated out of Atlantis in 79,797 BC. The [[bard]]s of the new [[White people|white]] root-race poetically referred to the new race as being ''moon-colored''.<ref>Leadbeater, C.W. and Besant, Annie ''Main: Whence, How, and Whither?'' Wheaton, Illinois:1913 Theosophical Press Pages 249-254</ref> A small group of these Aryan migrants from Atlantis split from the main body of migrants 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". The main body of 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".<ref name="Powell-45">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 282-286. (Ch. 45. "The Beginnings of the Fifth (Aryan) Root Race".)</ref> (The "City of the Bridge" was constructed directly below the [[Etheric plane|etheric]] city called [[Shamballa]] where Theosophists believe the governing [[deity]] of Earth, [[Sanat Kumara]] (compare and contrast with  [[Four_Kumaras|Sanatkumaras of Hinduism]]), dwells; thus, the ongoing evolution of the Aryan root race has been divinely guided by the being Theosophists call "The Lord of the World".)

The esoteric name of the whole of the present land surface of Earth, i.e. the [[Afro-Eurasia|World Island]], the Americas, the Australian continent and Antarctica taken as a whole is ''Krauncha''.<ref name="Powell-11"/>

Blavatsky connects physical race with spiritual attributes constantly throughout her works:
{{quote|The intellectual difference between the Aryan and other civilized nations and such savages as the [[Pacific Islander|South Sea Islanders]], is inexplicable on any other grounds. No amount of culture, nor generations of training amid civilization, could raise such human specimens as the [[San people|Bushmen]], the [[Veddhas]] of [[Ceylon]], and some [[African Tribes|African tribes]], to the same intellectual level as the Aryans, the [[Semitic people|Semites]], and the [[Turanian]]s so called. The 'sacred spark' is missing in them and it is they who are the only inferior races on the globe, now happily – owing to the wise adjustment of nature which ever works in that direction – fast dying out. Verily mankind is 'of one blood,' but not of the same essence. We are the hot-house, artificially quickened plants in nature, having in us a spark, which in them is latent."<ref>Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'', Vol II, p 421</ref> ... Esoteric history teaches that idols and their worship died out with the Fourth Race, until the survivors of the hybrid races of the latter (Chinamen, African Negroes, &c.) gradually brought the worship back. The Vedas countenance no idols; all the modern Hindu writings do.<ref>Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'', Vol. II, p.723</ref>}}

Generally speaking, a large percentage of the people who live in the time of the period of the fifth root race are part of the fifth root race. However Blavatsky also opines that some [[Semitic peoples]] have become "degenerate in spirituality".  She asserted that some peoples descended from the Lemurians are "semi-animal creatures".  These latter include "the [[Tasmanian Aborigines|Tasmanians]], a portion of the [[Australian Aborigines|Australians]]." 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 [[Australian Aborigines|Australians]], [[Bushmen]], [[Negritos]], [[Andaman Islanders]], etc."<ref>Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. 2, p. 195f.</ref> All these aforementioned groups mentioned by Blavatsky, except the Borneians, are part of what in the late 19th and most of the 20th century was called the [[Australoid race]] (except for the [[Bushmen]], part of the [[Capoid race]]), both of which races, as noted above, were believed by traditional Theosophists to have been descended from the Lemurians.

====Subraces of the Aryan root race====
Blavatsky described the fifth root race with the following words: 

{{quote|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 Fifth Root-Race – and spring from one single progenitor, ... who is said to have lived over 18,000,000 years ago, and also 850,000 years ago – at the time of the sinking of the last remnants of the great continent of [[Atlantis]].<ref>Blavatsky, [[The Secret Doctrine|The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy]], Vol. II, p.249</ref>}}

She also prophesies of the destruction of the racial "failures of nature" as the future "higher race" ascends:
{{quote|Thus will mankind, race after race, perform its appointed cycle-pilgrimage. Climates will, and have already begun, to change, each tropical year after the other dropping one sub-race, but only to beget another higher race on the ascending cycle; while a series of other less favoured groups – the failures of nature – will, like some individual men, vanish from the human family without even leaving a trace behind.<ref>Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'', Vol II, p.446</ref>}}

The subraces (which Steiner renamed "Cultural Epochs" as a more adequate expression for our times) of the Aryan Fifth Root Race include the first subrace, the [[Indo-Aryans|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; the second subrace, the [[Arabs|Arabian]], which migrated from the "City of the Bridge" to [[Arabia]] in 40,000 BC; the third subrace, the [[Iranian peoples|Persian]], which migrated from the "City of the Bridge" to [[Persia]] in 30,000 BC; the fourth subrace, the [[Celts]], which migrated from the "City of the Bridge" to [[Western Europe]] beginning in 20,000 BC (the [[Mycenaeans|Mycenaean Greeks]] are regarded as an offshoot of the Celtic subrace that colonized Southeast Europe); and the fifth subrace, the [[Teutons|Teutonic]], which also migrated from the "City of the Bridge" to what is now Germany beginning in 20,000 BC (the [[Slav]]s are regarded as an offshoot of the Teutonic subrace that colonized Russia and surrounding areas).<ref name="Powell-50">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 308-316. (Ch. 50. "The fourth Aryan sub-race: The Keltic, B.C. 20,000".)</ref><ref name="Powell-45"/><ref name="Powell-46">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 287-289. (Ch. 46. "The City of the Bridge".)</ref><ref name="Powell-47">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 290-294. (Ch. 47. "The first Aryan sub-race: The Hindu, B.C. 60,000".)</ref><ref name="Powell-48">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 295-301. (Ch. 48. "The second Aryan sub-race: The Arabian, B.C. 40,000".)</ref><ref name="Powell-49">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 302-307. (Ch. 49. "The third Aryan sub-race: The Iranian, B.C. 30,000".)</ref><ref name="Powell-51">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 317-320. (Ch. 51. "The fourth Aryan sub-race: The Teutonic, B.C. 20,000".)</ref>

====The emergence of the sixth subrace of the Aryan root race====

According to Blavatsky the sixth subrace of the Aryan root race will begin to evolve in the area of the United States in the early 21st century.  This sixth subrace of the Aryan root race will be called the ''Australo-American subrace'' and is believed by Theosophists to be now arising from the Teutonic subrace of the Aryan root race in Australia and in the Western United States (many individuals of the new subrace will be born in [[California]]) and its surrounding nearby areas (i.e., the Australo-American subrace is in arising from the [[European Americans|Anglo-American]], [[English Canadians|Anglo-Canadian]], [[Anglo-Celtic Australian|Anglo-Australian]] and presumably also the [[New Zealand European|Anglo-New Zealander]] [[ethnic group]]s).<ref name="Powell-52">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 326-330. (Ch. 52 "The Aryan Sixth Sub-Race").</ref> The sixth or Australo-American sub-race will "possess certain [[psychic powers]], and for this the [[pituitary body]] will be developed, thus giving an additional sense, that of cognising [[Aura (paranormal)|astral emotions]] in the ordinary waking consciousness. We may say that in general the sixth sub-race will bring in wisdom and intuition, blending all that is best in the intelligence of the fifth subrace and the emotion of the fourth."<ref name="Powell-52"/>

===The sixth root race===

According to [[Charles Webster Leadbeater|C. W. Leadbeater]], a colony will be established in [[Baja California]] by the [[Theosophical Society]] under the guidance of the [[Ascended masters|Masters of the Ancient Wisdom]] in the 28th century for the intensive selective [[Eugenics|eugenic]] breeding of the sixth root race.  The Master [[Morya (Theosophy)|Morya]] will physically incarnate in order to be the Manu ("progenitor") of this new root race.<ref name="Besant-353">Besant/Leadbeater, ''Man: How, Whence, and Whither?'', p. 353-495.</ref> By that time, the world will be powered by [[nuclear power]] and there will be a single [[world government]] led by a person who will be the reincarnation of [[Julius Caesar]].<ref name="Besant-353"/> Tens of thousands of years in the future, a new continent will arise in the Pacific Ocean that will be the future home of the sixth root race.<ref name="Powell-54">Powell, ''The Solar System'', p. 330-347. (Ch. 54. "The sixth and seventh root-races.)</ref> [[California]] west of the [[San Andreas Fault]] will break off from the mainland of North America and become the [[Island of California]] off the eastern coast of the new continent.<ref name="Powell-52"/>

[[Victor Skumin]] elaborated on the [[Spiritual evolution#Theosophical conceptions|theosophical conceptions]] of [[spiritual evolution]] and proposed (1990) a classification of '''''Homo spiritalis''''' ([[Latin]]: ''spiritual man''), the sixth root race, consisting of eight subraces: HS0 Anabiosis spiritalis, HS1 Scientella spiritalis, HS2 Aurora spiritalis, HS3 Ascensus spiritalis, HS4 Vocatus spiritalis, HS5 Illuminatio spiritalis, НS6 Creatio spiritalis, and HS7 Servitus spiritalis. According to Skumin:
*''Anabiosis spiritalis'' is spirituality in the potential of unmanifest accumulations of personality, the charge of the fires of spiritual creation;
*''Scientella spiritalis'' is the cordial presentiment of the presence and demands of the spirit, spiritualization of the fire of centers, glimpses of self-consciousness of a spiritual person; 
*''Aurora spiritalis'' is the imperative of the spirit, the action of the spiritual fire of the centers in the heart, the kindling of the fire of the spirit, the formation of the orientation of the personality to the spiritual improvement of life; 
*''Ascensus spiritalis'' is the dawn of spiritual aspirations, the action of the fire of the spirit in the heart, searching spiritual work, aspiration of self-consciousness to merge with the One Spirit; 
*''Vocatus spiritalis'' is the maturation of spiritual accumulations, the purposeful spiritual creation, self-awareness and realization of a person as a warrior of the spirit; 
*''IIluminatio spiritalis'' is the beginning of the fiery transmutation, the lighting of the achievement fire; revealing the identity of man - the earthly carrier of the Thoughts of the One Spirit; 
*''Creatio Spiritalis'' is the beginning of fiery creation, the action of the fire of achievement in the heart, the  revealing self-consciousness of man as the earthly carrier of the Light of the One Spirit; 
*''Servitus Spiritalis'' is the carrying a consciously accepted duty-commission, the synthesis of spirituality in the clarity of knowledge of a ''fiery man''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Skumin |first=V. A. |script-title=ru:Человек духовный: роль культуры духовного здоровья в утверждении новой человеческой расы на планете |trans-title=Spiritual man: The role of the Culture of spiritual health for approval of the new human race on the planet |year=1996 |publisher=Teros |location=[[Novocheboksarsk]] |url=https://biblmdkz.ru/hs.html |language=ru |isbn=978-5-88167-012-2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309182123/https://biblmdkz.ru/hs.html |archive-date=9 March 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>

===The seventh root race===

The seventh root race will arise from the seventh subrace of the sixth root race on the future continent that the sixth root race will be living on that will arise from the Pacific Ocean.<ref name="Powell-54"/> The continent they will inhabit is esoterically called ''[[Pushkara]]''.<ref name="Powell-11"/>

This root race will be the last race to appear on planet Earth. Theosophist Scott Ramsey predicts that any sexual difference among humans will cease to exist, and both conception and birth will become entirely spiritual. 

He also writes humanity will have a great spiritual development, and he describes this development in the following words: 

	"Everything that is irredeemably sinful and wicked, cruel and destructive, will have been eliminated, and that which is found to survive will be 	swept away from being, owing, so to speak, to a Karmic tidal-wave in the shape of scavenger-plagues, geological convulsions and other means of destruction."<ref>Ramsey 2017</ref>