KARMA 67

that of the family. Kings ascended thrones and sacerdotal systems

were formulated; the strong began to assert their greater force, and
the weak gradually sank into subjection. A still further descent and
we come to the fourth race, the bottom rung in the cyclic ladder, and
fittingly known as the Iron Age. This was the turning point of the
seven races wherein the soul attains its greatest penetrating power;
spirit can descend Kings and their priestly counsellors
no lower.
became true despots, and the people were helpless and oppressed.
Next comes a higher evolution. The fifth race, beginning at
the end of the fourth, reaches up to the equinoctial line of the
mental arc in the ascending scale, and consequently another stormy
period commences. All is strife and turmoil. It is the struggle of the
oppressed against the oppressor. It is not the gentle mental storm of
the Silver equinox, because a spiritual period of light had preceded
that era, but it is the storm of war and bloodshed; of a fierce
democracy battling for the divine rights of man against usurped
authority. It is thus because the Iron Age of oppression has preceded
it. We are at the present day passing through this fearful equinocial
period. The fifth race is coming to a close, and already forerunners
of the sixth race are among the people, aiding in the spread of
glorious truth.
A spiritual, intellectual and scientific awakening is now taking
place. All peoples of the world are seeking truth and justice. While
the scientific world is producing miracles in their efforts to annihilate
time and space, and solve the many hidden mysteries of life. See
La Clef, Chapter VI. The sixth race of human beings now external
izing here on the earth will develop intuition as a sixth sense, per
ception through spiritual sensation, and learn to consciously use it
in their daily lives. They will intuitively know a thing without any
material evidence to support their knowledge, yet will find the truth
upon application or verification of the information received.
The secondary causes of human suffering are man's ignorance, and
the re-actions of his animal nature. That is to say, man makes the
conditions that are necessary for his progress by alternately struggling
with and yielding to his own animal desires. But for this nature and
the experience the soul gains thereby, material incarnation might be
dispensed with. The state of suffering depends upon the race, as
before stated, but the effects of that suffering are in exact fulfillment