Theosophy and evolution: two views--Brenda Tucker, Henry T. Edge

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Shaun Johnston:
In modern times we've made two revolutionary discoveries. One is, how changes in physical matter can be accounted for in terms of physical laws that can predict precisely what will happen next. Having given rise to science (how this can be studied) and industry (how it can be applied) this revolution is well under way.

The second revolution is, how emergence of species of living creatures can be accounted for in terms of them evolving from one another. This revolution, despite its promise of how much it could tell us about ourselves, remains stillborn through the mistaken application to it of principles coming out of the first revolution--reductive physicalism.

For this second revolution to advance it should be taken from under the wing of science and studied on its own terms. Tip: one recent product of evolution is creatures with minds. Minds are better studied through methods of the humanities than through those of science. Tell me, does this interest you?

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Finding Brenda’s Tucker’s account of evolution from a theosophical angle hard to understand (see second item below), I looked online for an introduction by someone else. I found Dr. Edge’s book online, and include some extracts from the introduction to chapter 1. Dr. Edge appears to me to have retained a 19th century meaning of evolution as something developing, rather than of a process through which species of living creatures change over time. Also distinctive is that he states evolution is not creative; he traces a cathedral to the idea in the mind of an architect, but does not appear to allow that that can be a new creation.

Evolution
Theosophical University Press Online Edition
By Henry T. Edge, M.A., D. Litt.

The word evolution is used in theosophy to denote the universal process by which everything is brought into being….Evolution is the universal process by which things change and grow and develop. Its nature can be understood by a few familiar illustrations.

A seed is planted… goes through various stages of development until it has become a fully grown tree with flowers and fruit. This is evolution; the tree has evolved from the seed.

A fertilized ovum in the womb passes through many stages until a fully formed human infant is produced, and this again develops until a fully grown human being appears. This again is evolution, and the human being has evolved from the germ.

An architect conceives in his mind an idea; this idea takes form on paper, and plans are drawn; ultimately the plans are executed in marble and granite, until through many stages and by the work of many hands there has arisen a superb and mighty cathedral. This again is evolution…. But [evolution] does not mean the creation of anything that did not exist before. The cathedral existed before; not as a stone edifice, but as an idea in the mind of the architect.

No sense can be made out of the matter until we recognize all these activities as guided by intelligence. Mind, purpose, intelligence, instinct, desire, guide all the processes in nature; and if we do not admit this, we shall be obliged to invent something else which in some mysterious way performs all the results of intelligence. Moreover, the mind, purpose, etc., are the attributes of living beings, and cannot be thought of apart from the living beings which possess them. Hence it becomes necessary to view all nature as an assemblage of living beings; and, once this is done, difficulties vanish and we can present a rational explanation of the universe and of life and evolution.

End of extracts from Dr. Edge's book.

Brenda Tucker wrote to Evolution for the Humanities asking to be represented, identifying her ideas as based on theosophy, directing me to her website, http://www.homestead.com/theosophy/ascension.html. I am not familiar with the tradition she’s working in, so I asked her to send me a summary. I include paragraphs from her reply below.

A human being or kingdom that descends into material form by reaching inside of a material animal kingdom and becoming material themselves in the process was not an idea I was familiar with through my education or reading of theosophy. I knew about the early “races” that were half animal and half human, but did not recognize the process as a cyclical whole until 1995. As we descend through animal contact and become material, we cause the animal kingdom to ascend and we replace the animal kingdom with their angels on earth with our human kingdom and angels. The angels are our environment and exist in all lower forms than the evolving kingdom – a neat conclusion based on study. A turning point in this cycle is reached in the 4th human race (as it takes 3 to descend into animals and replace them, developing our own physical bodies in the meantime). Now, with an evolving animal no longer resident on earth, humans reach a point during the 5th race when initial contact with a higher kingdom begins. This higher kingdom I named girasas. They descend into humans and influence our directions in living until during the next 6th race, we will all be half human half girasas as part of a natural plan of evolution. We will be ascended by contacts with the girasas until we can no longer or are no longer willing to function in a physical body and as a kingdom desire to move away from earth, relocating to a subsequent globe in a series of globes or chain as Blavatsky describes. That subsequent globe will already be inhabited by an evolving animal kingdom and the process will repeat itself again, with humans taking the globe from an evolving animal kingdom and forcing them to ascend out of form on a continuous cycle.

The importance of this idea, I think, is in its application. We purify because we want to know this higher kingdom and we enjoy our association with their advanced ways. We invite them to take hold in us, but at some point the effort to live with them as teachers becomes too great and we long to practice our new talents without interference. The idea is that both higher and lower kingdoms are desirable to us in different life stages, but that by having a higher kingdom resident in each of us, we achieve much greater things that we can without them, and that law breakers could possibly benefit by encouraging a relationship with the girasas that prevents them from following baser motives. The idea is not without difficulty, as pairings of one girasas to one human may become unhealthy or strained, and a scientific monitoring of the process is one that I would desire so that no person is asked to do more than they are capable of or left alone without assistance from other humans following the same cautious undertakings. For our benefit, there is already a body of humans that can be called Ascended, and they are leaders and teachers who do not leave us stranded. Ascending ourselves could only add further to the success of our planet as we use our faculties for keeping the earth safe and healthy.