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Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism190
lessons owing to the lack of space. We may find room, however, to say a
little about these matters.
The earth is one of a chain of planets, belonging to our solar system, all of
which are intimately connected with the others in this great law of Spiritual
Evolution. Great waves of life sweep over the chain, carrying race after race
along the chain, from one planet to another. Each race stays on each planet
for a certain period, and then having developed, passes on to the planet
next highest in the scale of evolution, finding there conditions best suited
for its development. But this progress from planet to planet is not circular—
it resembles a spiral, circling round and round and yet rising higher with
each curve.
Let us suppose a soul dwelling upon any of the planets of our planetary
chain, in a comparatively undeveloped state of spiritual growth—occupying
a low place in the scale of evolution. The soul gains the experiences coming
to it in that stage, in a number of incarnations, and then is swept away
toward the next highest planet in the chain, together with the rest of its
particular race, and is reincarnated there. In this new home it occupies a
plane distinctly in advance of the one occupied in the last one—its entire
race forming the nucleus of a new race there, some being pioneers while the
others follow after. But still this advanced stage (as compared with its stage
on the planet just left behind it) may be much lower in the scale of progress
than other races dwelling on the same planet with it. Some of the races,
lowest in the point of evolution on this earth, may have been much nearer
the highest stage of development on the last planet inhabited by them, and
still they have progressed greatly by the change—the highest on a lower
planet perhaps being less highly developed than the lowest on one farther
along the planetary chain. Many of the races that formerly inhabited the
Earth, traces of whom we occasionally find, have passed on to a higher stage
of development. History shows us that race after race came to the front in
the earth’s development—played their part upon the stage of action—and
then passed on—where? The occult philosophies furnish the missing link of