From “The Journal of Esoteric Psychology”, Vol. 9, no. 1, 1995

Revised May 10th, 2000
 

Introductory definitions

It is a widespread belief among esotericists and students of occultism that the deva evolution is parallel to the human evolution. This belief probably originates in many sources but not least in the writings of well-known theosophical pioneers like C. W. Leadbeater, Geoffrey Hodson or Dora van Gelder Kunz.

In the ordinary meaning of the word “parallel” it would mean that there are devas at the same level of evolution as human beings, that some ramification of the one life passes by humanity and individualises outside the human kingdom so that these beings do not obtain the strictly human experience.

We will in this article discuss the question and seek to establish another working hypothesis, for there is great beauty in the thought that one mighty wave of life sweeps through the various form types of evolution, passing all stages, whether human or devic, and ending up with the total amount of experience possible in planetary and solar manifestation.

In Alice A. Bailey’s A Treatise on Cosmic Fire (CF) and H. P. Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine (SD) we find a number of crucial statements which we shall simply quote in order to make our main point:

“He must remember likewise the fact that every life of every degree, from a god to the most insignificant of the lesser devas, or builders, must at some time or another pass through the human family”.

 

“Forget not the occult truism that all forms of existence pass at one stage of their career through the human kingdom”.

 

“No being can become God, or Deva, unless he passes through the human Cycles”.
 

“Moreover, from the beginning of the Round, all in Nature tends to become Man. All the impulses of the dual, centripetal and centrifugal Force are directed towards one point — Man”.

 

“The (goal of the) Lunar Pitris (is) to become men. They will in their higher grades pass directly into the animal evolution of the next cycle and so eventually individualise”.

 

“The goal for the devas (below the rank of Solar Pitris) is individualisation, and their objective is to become men in some future cycle”.

 

“These Lunar Spirits have to become “men” in order that their Monads may reach a higher plane of activity and self-consciousness”.

We see that this parallelism, in the ordinary meaning of the word, is not supported by these important sources of esoteric knowledge. But the Tibetan Master also uses the word “parallel” in relation to the human and deva evolutions. He describes how the human astral body consists of small involutionary elemental lives, which form the vehicle itself, and an evolutionary deva who makes it a coherent whole, and he states that the man, if controlled by them (which most people are), must free himself. He goes on to say:

“If these remarks are rightly apprehended, some understanding will come of what is meant when the deva evolution is spoken of as being a “parallel evolution” to that of man. In the three worlds the two lines of evolution parallel each other, and must not be consciously one. In the planes of the Triad they are known as a unity, producing the Divine Hermaphrodite...”

So the word “parallel” here refers to types of consciousness and not levels of evolution. But how, then, may we approach the subject in order to clarify our minds about the deva evolution? I suggest we consider the relationship between life, consciousness and form. Kingdoms of nature are merely form types that the life energy occupies in order to develop sentient consciousness.

May be an analogy from the realm of electronics may be of help here. When an electric current passes through a wire it produces a magnetic field. When the wire is straight the field is low, but when the wire is winded into a coil the field increases its potential directly proportional to the number of windings.

So life (current) incarnates in the form types of evolution (wire) in order to develop consciousness (magnetic field), and the more complex the form (number of windings) the higher the degree of consciousness (power of magnetic field).

The life energy is often spoken of in vague terms like “outpourings” of “life waves”, but it is really groups of monads at various levels of development. These groups are called creative hierarchies because they create everything in the system, including the planes of matter or substance. Each hierarchy (not to be confused with the “Spiritual Hierarchy”) represents a certain evolutionary level and incarnates in one or more kingdoms of nature. In the next cycle (whatever that may be) it moves on into the next level.

Each hierarchy has to learn everything possible at its particular level, that is “release the rain cloud of knowable things”, and so we are told that some of the hierarchies have already done that in regard to our cosmic physical plane and are now focused on the cosmic astral plane. From the beginning there are 12 creative hierarchies, and 5 of them (approximately) have moved on, leaving 7 hierarchies within the sphere of evolution that the esoteric teaching normally considers—our 7 planes of nature. We may tabulate these 7 hierarchies and their functions in relation to man in the following manner:
 

1. The Fire Lords, wielders of the highest energy in the system.

2. The Divine Builders, the source of the monadic life but not the monads themselves.

3. The Triads, stimulating the higher self in man and making him a spiritual being.

These 3 hierarchies are highly evolved spiritual beings that have passed the human stage in the previous solar system.

4. The human monads, the core of the present humanity on Earth. They end up on the 7 paths of cosmic evolution, most of them following the path to Sirius and becoming solar angels in the next system.

5. The solar angels, the greater builders who form the egoic body of man and give him his self-consciousness. They passed through the human stage in earlier chain periods, and become planetary Logoi in the next system.

6. The Lunar Pitris, the lesser builders or nature spirits who build all life forms in nature, including human bodies, and constitute their inherent life. They become humanity in the next cycle.

7. The elemental lives which animate all particles of matter and constitute the elemental essences. They become the etheric and dense physical body of the next system.

So we see that the 5th, 6th and 7th of the creative hierarchies constitute the deva evolution as we know it on our planet. It means that there are no “real” subhuman kingdoms of nature, only deva beings developing physical consciousness by inhabiting the forms of nature.

“A beautiful diamond, a stately tree, or a fish in the water are but devas after all”.

May be we can get some idea of what (for instance) an animal is by comparing it to a human being. Man is the sum total of elemental essences, 3 evolutionary devas (etheric, astral and mental) and a self-conscious identity expressing itself through the solar angel. But if we remove this identity all that is left is a “syndrome” of deva forces, and that is what the animal seems to be.

So our conclusion now is that the deva evolution is not parallel to the human evolution but passes through it, so to speak. There is only one life stream, and it moves through various phases of form life in order to develop consciousness. Deva is but a state of consciousness, and so is man.

But after the human kingdom the two evolutions may be said to be parallel, for depending on the activity we may perceive the spiritual entity as a deva or an adept. If the being is primarily concerned with substance and form we term it a deva or an angel, and if it is working with consciousness we speak of it as an adept or a master.

The functions and structure of the deva evolution

At the “creation” of the system the planetary Logoi “meditates” or “visualises” the archetypal form patterns to be manifested during evolution—the blue prints of the architect, as it were. These archetypes or blue prints are assimilated by the greater builders, may be analogous to the manner in which a programme is transferred to the hard disk of a computer. Now it is their task to realise the energy patterns in time and space out of their own essence. So they are the creative forces that build the forms as well as constituting their substance.

This means that the deva evolution belongs under the 3rd or Brahma aspect of the Logos—creative intelligent activity. Therefore the highest officials are the mighty Deva-rajas, 7 great Deva Lords manifesting the 7 planes of matter from the 7 spirillas of the cosmic physical permanent atom—the golden disc of the sun. This gives us the following tabulation of the 3 aspects of the Logos:

Kshiti—the Deva Lord of the plane
Having a level of evolution corresponding to a chohan of a ray.

7 Deva Lords—one for each subplane

Constitute the “council” of Kshiti.

3 groups:

1st group—on the 1st subplane

The greater builders,

holding the plan of evolution in their consciousness,

projecting it to the next group.

2nd group—on the 2nd, 3rd & 4th subplanes

The lesser builders,

assimilating the impulses from the 1st group,

building all life forms including human bodies.

3rd group—on the 5th, 6th & 7th subplanes

The elemental lives,

constituting the substances manipulated by the lesser builders.

Conclusion

Maybe we can regard this model as a working hypothesis concerning the deva evolution.

The problem is, however, that the prominent clairvoyants mentioned above—C. W. Leadbeater, Geoffrey Hodson and Dora van Gelder Kunz—do not seem to agree to this model but regard the devas as belonging to a life stream parallel to the one of human beings. An exception here is Geoffrey Hodson who in his most comprehensive work on the dava evolution, The Kingdom of the Gods, states:

“The Gods. This term is used throughout this book to denote, not the symbolic images to which the title was given by ancient peoples, but hierarchical Orders of Intelligences, quite distinct from man in this Solar System, but who either have been or will be men.”

But later in the book he reverts to the classical theosophical notion of parallel evolutions, seemingly disregarding the consequences of his own statement. Perhaps the point of view of these researchers is simply based on observation. May be they observe in nature devas who seem to represent a level of consciousness corresponding to the human level. If we want to answer this question there are three point we should be aware of:

1. Devas do not seem to be as firmly related to a planetary scheme as human beings do. They may have the entire solar system as their field of activity.

2. The degree of initiation that concludes and perfects the human stage is not always the 5th as in our present situation, but varies from scheme to scheme, chain to chain and round to round.

3. Their rate of unfoldment seems to be considerably slower than during the human phase.

This means that there may be members of the angelic kingdom on Earth who have passed out of the human kingdom in other schemes, chains or rounds at a far earlier stage than the present (the 5th initiation), and that these beings are seen by the clairvoyant observer to be of a level of consciousness corresponding to intelligent humanity.