Date: 2026-09-19. Scope: the collected quotes come from Samael Aun Weor's books and lectures only. Helena Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine and Sri Yukteswar's Holy Science are consulted in the last two sections, on where his two time scales come from.
Files in this folder:
quotes.json— every classified quote: work, year, paragraph number, full Spanish paragraph, the Spanish excerpt that carries the claim, the claim in one English sentence, who speaks, and which questions it answers.quotes_by_question.md— the same quotes listed under each question (generated fromquotes.json).questions.json— the question list.- this document: what the quotes say under each question, and where they disagree.
How the list was collected
- About 160 queries were run through the project's search tool (
/api/search,/api/matches,/api/doc), restricted to Samael's works, in lemma mode. They covered the units (ronda, raza raíz, subraza, raza de familia), every named race and continent, the sidereal year, Hercólubus, the Katuns, the four ages and yugas, the Aztec Suns, the Manu, the Mahamanvantara, the zodiacal ages, and every specific figure met so far. Result: 4,776 distinct paragraphs from 290 works. - A paragraph was kept as a candidate if it mentions one of these subjects together with any expression of time, sequence or position. Duplicates between book and lecture versions were merged. Result: 1,367 candidates.
- Twelve reader agents judged every candidate against the question list. A paragraph counts only if it asserts something concrete: a duration, a date, where we are now, what starts or ends a unit, the order or identity of units, a rule about lengths, or coexistence of races. Result: 774 quotes. Every returned id was checked against its batch and every Spanish excerpt was checked word for word against the source paragraph; none failed.
- 22 short structural statements that step 2 had left out because they contain no time expression (for example the one family-race sentence) were added by hand. Total: 796 quotes. 740 are Samael speaking, 38 are Samael reporting someone else, 18 are disciples' questions.
Limits: the dates are the publication or lecture years stored in the search tool; a few look unreliable (for example El Final de una Raza is stored as 1950 but reads like a 1970s text). Classification was done by agents and spot-checked, not re-read line by line. The search tool's text is the corpus edition, with whatever transcription errors that carries.
The questions
| Question | Quotes | |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | How long is a round? | 1 |
| Q2 | How long is a root race? | 38 |
| Q3 | How long is a sub-race? | 0 |
| Q4 | Family races: do they exist, how long? | 1 |
| Q5 | Are cycle lengths fixed, or do they vary? | 20 |
| Q6 | What absolute dates does he give? | 137 |
| Q7 | What ends or begins a root race? | 246 |
| Q8 | Where are we now? | 196 |
| Q9 | The four ages inside a race; when did the Kali Yuga begin? | 128 |
| Q10 | Which peoples are which sub-race? | 84 |
| Q11 | The rounds: number, order, world of each | 51 |
| Q12 | Larger cycles (Mahamanvantara, cosmic day) | 24 |
| Q13 | Overlap: coexisting races, survivors, one body across races | 87 |
| Q14 | Zodiacal ages and the sidereal year | 91 |
| Q15 | Future races and rounds | 169 |
| Q16 | Hercólubus: period, past visits, return | 57 |
| Q17 | Aztec Suns and Maya Katuns | 99 |
| Q18 | Durations of events inside a race (sinkings, lifespans) | 74 |
| Q19 | Structure: how many of each unit | 32 |
What the quotes say, question by question
References are work, paragraph number (§) as the search tool numbers it, and year.
Q1. How long is a round?
He never says. The single quote is incidental (La Revolución de Bel §4, 1950: the "solar epoch" lasted "millones de años"). The rounds are always described by the world they take place in, never by length.
Q2. How long is a root race?
Four different answers.
- One sidereal year, 25,968 years. About 30 quotes, 1973–1977, plus Misterios Mayas. "Una Raza no dura más que lo que dura un año sideral… ese viaje equivale a unos 25968 años, ese el tiempo que dura una Raza" (La búsqueda de nuestra propia realidad §45, 1975). "La raza nuestra durará hasta finalizar el viaje; no puede durar un poco más, ni un poco menos" (Preguntas y respuestas II §5, 1976). Applied to all five races: Atlantean, Lemurian, Hyperborean and the first race each "concluyó también con el Año Sideral" (Mensaje dirigido a los misioneros §9–12, 1976; Profecías del Avatara §6, 1976).
- More than a million years (so far). "Nuestra actual quinta raza raíz… tiene ya algo más de un millón de años de existencia" (La Doctrina Secreta de Anáhuac §45, 1974). "Los arios comenzaron hace más de un millón de años" (Magia de las Runas §3, 1969). A kingdom of Aryan-Atlantean mixture beside Tibet "hace ya cerca de un millón de años" (Mi regreso al Tíbet §22, 1969).
- About seventy thousand years. "El Manú de nuestra raza Aria es el Manú Vaivaswata, desde hace unos setenta mil años" (Tratado de Medicina Oculta §4, 1955).
- About eleven thousand years, by implication: the race "empezó después del Diluvio Universal" (many quotes) and the Flood was "hace unos 11.000 años" (Los Cuerpos Solares §12, 1967; El Calendario Azteca §17, 1973; Magia de las Runas §3, 1969).
Also: a race is divided into "13 tiempos… 13 pedazos de el gran Día Sideral, que tiene 25.968 años" (Atributos y misión de los extraterrestres §117, 1977), and the 13 Katuns are "trece períodos de tiempo para cada raza humana" (Pistis Sophia §4).
Q3. How long is a sub-race?
No quote. He never gives a length for a sub-race, of any race.
Q4. Family races
One sentence in the whole corpus (La Doctrina Secreta de Anáhuac §46, 1974): each sub-race has seven branches "que pueden llamarse 'ramas' o 'razas de familia'". No length, no examples, never mentioned again.
Q5. Fixed or varying lengths?
- Fixed, for the race and the four ages. "Ése es un Año Sideral, allí sí se puede hablar de tiempos fijos" (Ética, ciencia y esoterismo gnóstico §65, 1977). "Es el mismo proceso para cualquier raza; las estaciones siempre se repiten" (Precisiones doctrinarias §66, 1975). The end of the journey coinciding with Hercólubus is "el juego mecánico de las esferas" (Preguntas para Abraxas §215, 1973).
- Not fixed, for creatures. "No existen tiempos fijos para las Evoluciones o Involuciones de las criaturas" (same lecture §63).
- Symbolic, for the large cycles. "Todas las cantidades de años asignadas a un día cósmico son simbólicas. La noche cósmica llega cuando la cosecha de almas perfectas se completa" (Pistis Sophia §9).
- Cycles within cycles. "Hay ciclos pequeños y dentro de los ciclos pequeños, hay ciclos más grandes" (Diálogo… culturas mayas §79, 1977); the seven 52-year cycles "son simbólicos, porque la duración de cada raza pertenece a los siete soles en grande" (Secretos arqueológicos de Cempoala §92, 1977).
He never says that one race is longer or shorter than another.
Q6. Absolute dates
| Event | Date given | Where |
|---|---|---|
| First (Protoplasmic/Polar) race | "más de trescientos millones de años"; "unos trescientos millones"; "unos 350 millones" | Matrimonio Perfecto §3; Ciencia pura… §72; Siete Cátedras §204 |
| Lemuria | "hace 18.000.000 de años" (six works, 1956–1974); "muchos millones de años" | Misterios Mayores, Mensaje de Acuario, Libro de los Muertos, Pentalfa, Pacto del Bautismo |
| Fall of man / mixing with beasts | Miocene, "tercera parte del Eoceno"; elsewhere "época Cuaternaria" | 7 Cátedras §17, §74 vs §25 |
| Lemuria's sinking | took "diez mil años" (over 15 quotes) | many |
| Lemurian golden age | reached after "150.000 años de evolución" | Revolución de Bel §4 |
| Aryans begin | "más de un millón de años"; "unos setenta mil años"; after the Flood | see Q2 |
| Atlantean catastrophes | 800,000 / 200,000 / 11,000 years ago | Cuerpos Solares §12, §31; Calendario Azteca §17 |
| Atlantis still whole, capital Toyan | "ochocientos mil años antes de Jesús el Cristo" | 7 Cátedras §21 |
| Great Pyramid, built by Atlanteans | "unos 27.000 años antes de Cristo" | Radio IQ §110, 1977 |
| Flood / end of Atlantis | 11,000 years ago; Solon's 9,000 years (cited); Maya manuscript's 8,000 years (cited) | as above; Tres Montañas §42 |
| Kali Yuga begins | with Greco-Roman culture; "a raíz de la muerte del Señor Krishna"; at Christ's coming | see Q9 |
| "Primer ciclo de Kali-yuga" ends | 1899 | Curso Zodiacal §16, 1951 |
| Final Judgment already held | between 1946 and 1953 | Cuerpos Solares §23 |
| Age of Aquarius begins | 4 February 1962, 2–3 pm (about 25 quotes); rejects 1948 | many |
| Age of Aquarius ends | "entre el 4.000 y 4.500" | Evolución, involución, revolución §56, 1975 |
| Final catastrophe | 2500 "exactamente" (1971–72); 2500 "simbólico" and Katun 13 = 2043 (1973 onward); "en este siglo" (1976); "después del año 2000" (1975); Nostradamus's 1999 reported, sometimes doubted, sometimes half-endorsed | see Q7 |
| Survivors' wait before the sixth race | "dos siglos"; "varios siglos"; Earth deserted "milenios" | Mensaje… Teotihuacan §22; Nueva Edad de Acuario §28; Gnosis en el siglo XX §15 |
Q7. What ends and begins a root race?
Consistent core (about 250 quotes): a race ends in its Iron Age with a cataclysm; the cataclysm comes when the solar system completes its journey round the zodiac; Hercólubus arrives at that moment, the Earth's axes turn over, poles and equator exchange places, fire and then water destroy the continents. Before the end, a Manu leads a chosen people out (Vaivasvata from Atlantis to the Central Asian plateau; a Gnostic exodus to an island in the Pacific now). The new race is born from that nucleus, mixed with older stock, on new land, and begins in a Golden Age.
Variations that matter for chronology:
- The first race "fueron seres sabios que no tuvieron que sufrir los cataclismos, pues, todavía existe el continente polar del norte" (Relevantes manifestaciones doctrinarias §67, 1976), against "la Primera Raza… concluyó también con el Año Sideral" and every sidereal year "termina con una catástrofe".
- The Aryan journey "empezó en Acuario y terminará en Acuario" (1975–77), against "Nuestra evolución comenzó en la constelación de Leo y termina en Leo" (Misterios Mayores §7, 1956; Mensaje de Acuario §101, 1960).
Q8. Where are we now?
Fourth round; fifth root race; Iron Age / Kali Yuga; the sidereal year "llegando a sus últimos grados"; "en la mitad del Gran Día Cósmico, faltan tres Rondas" (Revelaciones kabalistas §169, 1974); Katun 12, with Katun 13 entering in 2040–2043; Age of Aquarius since 1962.
On the sub-race he gives five different statements:
- Sixth sub-race (most quotes, 1965–1977); Blavatsky, Steiner and Heindel "se equivocaron" in saying fifth (Cuerpos Solares §24).
- "Quinta raza, sexta sub-raza, cuarta ronda" (Magia Crística Azteca §3).
- "Somos la Séptima Subraza" (El Calendario Azteca §18, 1973).
- "Esta raza ya dio todas sus siete sub-razas, no tiene más que dar" (El órgano Kundartiguador §39, 1974).
- The seventh "todavía no existe" (Cuerpos Solares §28, 1967; Misterios Mayas §40, 1977), against the seventh "se está formando en los Estados Unidos, ya existe" (Edad de Hierro de los Atlantes §46, 1975) and "está para rasgarse ahora" (Cristo Cósmico §418, 1977).
On the Iron Age: "al final del Kali Yuga" (many), against "estamos en la mitad de la Edad de Hierro, exactamente en la mitad" and "la otra mitad la pasaremos entre el caos" (Aviso de alerta §20; Preguntas y respuestas II §37, 1976).
Q9. The four ages
Every race has Gold, Silver, Copper and Iron Ages, which are the spring, summer, autumn and winter of its sidereal year. For the Aryan race he maps them onto the sub-races (Extraterrestres y Apocalipsis §96, 1974; La Vía Directa §224; Hercólubus y los tiempos del fin §26–34):
| Age | Sub-race and place |
|---|---|
| Gold | first sub-race, Central Asian plateau (also "la Raza de Anáhuac y de los Toltecas" and the Incas, Hercólubus… §26) |
| Silver | second, southern Asia, pre-Vedic |
| Copper | third: Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, Syria (Cambyses, Cyrus; the priest of Sais speaking to Solon) |
| Iron | from the fourth, Greco-Roman, onward |
When the Kali Yuga began: "con la cultura greco-romana" (El origen del ego §35–42, 1968, and later); "surgió a raíz de la muerte del Señor Krishna en la India, tuvo su punto de partida con la cultura greco-romana" (El órgano Kundartiguador §32, 1974); Jesus came "en el instante preciso en que la humanidad se lanzaba exactamente, por el ciclo descendente, involutivo, del Kali Yuga"; he "apareció hace 1975 años" (La Era de Acuario y los tiempos del fin §60, 1975); "en 1899 finalizó el primer ciclo de Kali-yuga" (Curso Zodiacal §16, 1951). When it ends: 2500 is "el año final del Kali Yuga" (La catástrofe final §97, 1971), later declared symbolic.
Q10. The sub-races
Aryan: 1 Central Asian plateau; 2 India and southern Asia; 3 Babylon, Chaldea, Egypt (Persia, Phoenicia, Syria in some lists); 4 Greece and Rome (Samael as Julius Caesar was given "la misión de establecer un escenario fuerte para la cuarta subraza"); 5 Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic (the world wars); 6 Latin America (and the United States melting pot); 7 survivors of the coming cataclysm. The same seven cultures will recur as the seven sub-races of the sixth root race (Ejercicios de Lamasería §40–47).
Differences: the second sub-race "floreció en la China antigua… fui miembro de la dinastía Chou" (El Vacío Iluminador §6, 1972; El camino esotérico §68, 1976), against India in every list. The United States belongs to the sixth sub-race in 1967 and 1977, and is where the seventh "ya existe" in 1975.
Other races: Lemuria and Atlantis each had seven sub-races; the sexes divided "por la tercera sub-raza" of Lemuria; the seventh Atlantean sub-race "corresponde a los sobrevivientes de la Gran Tragedia" (Cuerpos Solares §21).
Q11. The rounds
Consistent throughout (51 quotes): seven rounds; first in the mental world, second astral, third etheric, fourth (now) physical, fifth etheric, sixth astral, seventh mental; then the cosmic night. A cosmic day has "las Siete Rondas. Es una semana de siete días". The seven root races all belong to the fourth, physical round; after the seventh race the Earth "se convertirá en una nueva luna". One slip: "cuando los Selenitas llegaron a la Sexta Sub-Raza de la Cuarta Ronda, edad a la que han llegado ahora los terrícolas" (Magia de las Runas §9) skips the root-race level.
Q12. Larger cycles
Mahamanvantara / Mahakalpa / cosmic day = 311,040,000,000,000 years, and the night the same (Curso Zodiacal §46; Magia de las Runas §21; Mi regreso al Tíbet §16; Tarot y Kábala §9). Against this: those year counts "son simbólicas" (Pistis Sophia §9). "Cada palpitación de los mundos se realiza cada 27.000 años" (Mi regreso al Tíbet §17).
Q13. Overlap and coexistence
- The chosen people left Atlantis before it sank; the first Aryan sub-race was formed from Atlantean survivors mixed with "la raza nórdica de los Hiperbóreos" (El órgano Kundartiguador §27; Tres Montañas §45; Plática sobre el fenómeno OVNI §91). So the second race was still present at the end of the fourth.
- The original Semite came from "los Hiperbóreos con la cuarta sub-raza atlante" (Plática con los hermanos del Zulia §154).
- The Aryans began "hace más de un millón de años", before the first Atlantean catastrophe of 800,000 years ago (Magia de las Runas §3).
- Samael's own Lemurian body "vivió millones de años": Lemuria, all of Atlantis, the exodus with the Manu, lost at "la Primera Sub-Raza Aria" (Tarot y Kábala §7; Samael inmortal §7; Las facultades superiores §132). Sanat Kumará's body is "más de 18.000.000 de años" old.
- Remnants alive today: Lemurians in Agartha, Lilliputians from the third race, Eskimos as degenerate Atlanteans, ants as an older human race.
- The seventh sub-race of a race is its survivors, living after the cataclysm that ends the race.
Q14. Zodiacal ages and the sidereal year
Sidereal year: 25,968 years in most quotes; "unos 25.000, o puede que también unos 25.968 años, poco más o menos, porque no se le ha podido hacer el cálculo exacto" (Resurrección mística §62); "24.968 años y algo más" (Ética, ciencia… §63, probably a slip or transcription error). Each zodiacal age "dura 2.160 años"; Aquarius began in 1962 and ends between 4000 and 4500. 12 × 2,160 = 25,920. He never relates the 2,160-year age to the sub-race.
Q15. Future races
Sixth race (Koradhi): born from the rescued nucleus on new land after the cataclysm, begins with a Golden Age, nobody with ego admitted, smaller in stature, seven sub-races repeating the Aryan ones. The seventh race about 25 cm tall. The survivors wait "dos siglos" or "varios siglos" on an island. "La Edad de Oro no esta para dentro de algunos millones de años, no. Está a las puertas, es ahora en Acuario" (Las facultades superiores §168); Tláloc "volverá en Acuario, o sea, en la Edad de Oro" (Simbología gnóstica de los animales §124). Against: there will be no era of fraternity after 2000, and those who put the Golden Age in 2001 or 2007 are "profetas falsos".
Q16. Hercólubus
It came at the end of Lemuria and at the end of Atlantis, and comes now; "siempre llega al final de toda raza"; it is geared to the sidereal year. Its period: he rejects "6.666 años" twice, once because "su órbita es mucho más grande" (Resurrección mística §20, 1976) and once because "no lo vemos girando alrededor de ninguna órbita… es un mundo dislocado de otro sistema solar" (Extraterrestres y Apocalipsis §124, 1974); elsewhere it orbits "el sol Tylar" in synchrony with our journey (Preguntas para Abraxas §217, 1973).
Q17. Suns and Katuns
Five Suns = five races, each with its manner of death (tigers, hurricanes, rain of fire, water, fire and earthquakes). Thirteen Katuns per race; twelve have passed "matemáticamente"; Katun 13 enters in 2040–2043.
Q18. Durations inside a race
Lemuria sank over 10,000 years; Lemurian civilization took 150,000 years to reach its height; the division of the sexes took "varios millares de años" (Magia de las Runas §11) or "muchos millones de años" (Mirando al Misterio §27; Edad de Hierro de los Atlantes §73); Atlantean wars lasted centuries, from 800,000 to 11,000 years ago; Lemurians lived 12–15 centuries, Atlanteans about half that, Egyptians 140 years; the pharaonic dynasties lasted over 3,000 years.
Q19. Structure
Seven rounds; seven root races per planet ("todo planeta da siete razas y muere"); seven sub-races per race; seven family races per sub-race (once). Competing divisions of a race: 7 sub-races, 4 ages, 12 zodiacal signs, 13 Katuns.
Apparent contradictions
Allowing races to differ in length removes none of the first group, because in the sidereal-year teaching all races are explicitly the same length.
A. The length and age of a root race
- 25,968 years against "más de un millón de años" for the same Aryan race (Q2). Both are stated in 1974–1975; this is not an early view replaced by a late one.
- Either of those against "unos setenta mil años" for the Manu of the Aryan race (1955).
- 25,968 years against the Flood date. The race began after the Flood and is ending now, so by the sidereal-year rule the Flood was about 26,000 years ago; he dates it 11,000 years ago (and cites Solon's 9,000 and a Maya text's 8,000 without objection). The journey "Aquarius to Aquarius" is a full circle; 11,000 years is less than half of one.
- 25,968 years per race against the dates of the earlier races. Five races of one sidereal year each reach back about 130,000 years. He dates the first race to 300–350 million years ago and Lemuria to 18 million. Lemuria alone needs 150,000 years to reach its golden age and 10,000 years to sink, which is six sidereal years.
- One sidereal year for Atlantis against three Atlantean catastrophes spread over 800,000 years, and against an Atlantean pyramid of 27,000 BC followed by a Flood in 9,000 BC (18,000 years of Atlantis after the pyramid is possible within one sidereal year, but 800,000 is not).
- "Every sidereal year ends with a catastrophe and a race" against the long periods. If Hercólubus returns every 25,968 years and always destroys a race, there would have been hundreds of destructions since Lemuria. If it returns only at the end of each race, its period is not the sidereal year.
- The first race "ended with the sidereal year" against the first race "did not have to suffer the cataclysms".
B. The start and end points of the Aryan journey
- "Began in Aquarius and ends in Aquarius" against "began in Leo and ends in Leo" (1956, 1960). In the later lectures Leo is only the sign opposite Aquarius.
- "The race will last exactly until the journey ends, not a little more, not a little less", and the journey has "only a few degrees" left, against an end in 2043 or 2500. Aquarius began in 1962 and lasts 2,160 years; if the journey ends on returning to the starting point in Aquarius, "a few degrees" is a few hundred years (one degree is 72 years), which fits 2500 better than 2043 but fits neither exactly, and the starting degree is never given.
- The date of the end: "exactamente en el año 2500", told to him by the White Lodge (1972), against 2500 as a symbol for the seventh seal and 2043 as the real beginning (1973 onward), against "en este siglo" (1976), against a repeated, half-endorsed 1999 ("Nostradamus dice que en el 99. Bueno, nunca se ha equivocado ese hombre", 1975; "En el año 1999, Hercólubus estará visible ante todos los seres humanos", Misterios Mayas §46), against his statement in the same year that he would not accept 1999 as the end of the race (Las dos líneas de la vida §122).
C. Where we are in the race
- Which sub-race we are in: sixth; seventh ("somos la Séptima Subraza"); all seven already given; seventh not yet in existence; seventh already existing in the United States.
- Whether the seventh sub-race comes before or after the cataclysm. "Para el final de la séptima sub-raza… la raza aria perecerá en estos cataclismos" (1956) puts it before. "Estará formada por los sobrevivientes del nuevo gran cataclismo" (1967, 1977) puts it after, which also means a race outlives the sidereal year that is said to bound it exactly, and the seventh Aryan sub-race and the first sub-race of the sixth root race are the same survivors.
- Middle or end of the Iron Age. "Exactamente en la mitad", with the other half to be spent in chaos, against "al final del Kali Yuga". If the four ages are the four equal seasons of a 25,968-year journey, the Iron Age is about 6,500 years and its middle is 3,250 years from the end.
D. The four ages and the sub-races
- When the Kali Yuga began: with Greco-Roman culture; at Krishna's death (traditionally 3102 BC, which is the Egypt-Chaldea period he calls the Copper Age); at the coming of Christ; and a "first cycle" that ended in 1899 (which counts 5,000 years from 3102 BC).
- Four equal seasons against the seven sub-races. Gold = sub-race 1, Silver = sub-race 2, Copper = sub-race 3, Iron = sub-races 4 to 7. If the seasons are equal quarters of the journey, sub-races 1, 2 and 3 last about 6,500 years each and sub-races 4 to 7 share the last 6,500. That would put the Greco-Roman sub-race's beginning about 4,500 BC, not the first century BC where he puts his own life as Julius Caesar. On the 11,000-year scale the Copper Age would end about 750 BC, which fits his examples (Cambyses, Cyrus, Solon) far better than the 25,968-year scale does.
- Seven sub-races, four ages, twelve signs and thirteen Katuns are all offered as the division of the same race, with no statement of how they fit together. Thirteen equal Katuns of a 25,968-year race are 1,998 years each; Katun 13 entering in 2043 puts the start of Katun 1 about 21,900 BC, not at a Flood 11,000 years ago. The Maya katun he cites is a 20-year period, which he does not mention.
- The second sub-race in India (all lists) against China under the Chou dynasty (1046–256 BC), which is historically later than the third sub-race's Egypt and Babylon and contemporary with the fourth's Greece.
- Anáhuac, the Toltecs and the Incas in the Golden Age of the Aryan race (first sub-race) against the Maya stelae belonging to "la edad de bronce" and the cultures of Tenochtitlan and the Mayab dating "de la época de la Atlántida".
E. Overlap
- Races that ended long ago are still present later. The Hyperboreans (second race, ended "por otro viaje sideral") supply the Nordic half of the first Aryan sub-race and mix with the fourth Atlantean sub-race. The Aryans begin "más de un millón de años" ago, before the first Atlantean catastrophe, yet are "born after the Flood". This is only a contradiction with the rule "one race per sidereal year, trip concluded, race concluded"; on Blavatsky's overlapping model, which he copies in Anáhuac, it is expected.
- His own body. He kept one Lemurian body "millones de años", through all of Atlantis, into the first Aryan sub-race. On the sidereal-year scale that span is two sidereal years, about 52,000 years, not millions.
F. Hercólubus
- It has no orbit (a dislocated world, 1974) against its orbit being "mucho más grande" than 6,666 years (1976) against it orbiting Tylar in synchrony with the sidereal year (1973). If it marks the end of every sidereal year its period is 25,968 years.
G. The large cycles and the rounds
- The Mahamanvantara is 311,040,000,000,000 years (four works) against all such figures being symbolic (Pistis Sophia).
- Scale of a round. A cosmic day holds the seven rounds and we are at its middle. The fourth round holds seven races. At 25,968 years a race, a round is about 182,000 years and the whole day about 1.3 million, against 311 trillion; at a million years a race the day is still only about 50 million.
- Fall of man in the Miocene ("tercera parte del Eoceno", which he says science dates at 15–25 million years) against the intellectual animal arising "en la época Cuaternaria", in the same book (7 Cátedras). The Miocene date agrees with the 18 million years for Lemuria; the Quaternary one does not. Calling the Miocene the third part of the Eocene is also a geological error.
H. Aquarius and the Golden Age
- Aquarius "o sea, la Edad de Oro", and the Golden Age "está a las puertas, es ahora en Acuario" against Aquarius being the sign under which the race is destroyed, with no era of fraternity after 2000 and "false prophets" for those who expect one in 2001 or 2007. These reconcile only if the Golden Age belongs to the sixth race and starts some centuries after the cataclysm, still inside Aquarius (which runs to about 4100); he says as much in places, but the waiting time varies from two centuries to "milenios".
What the quotes do not contain
- No length for a round, a sub-race or a family race.
- No statement that races differ in length, and several that they are all alike.
- No statement relating the 2,160-year zodiacal age to the sub-race.
- No date for the start of any sub-race except by example (Julius Caesar for the fourth, the Spanish conquest for the sixth, the world wars for the fifth).
- No acknowledgement, anywhere, of the difference between the million-year figures and the sidereal-year rule.
Two scales
Nearly every figure belongs to one of two sets, and the contradictions in group A are the places where the two meet.
- The long scale, taken from Blavatsky: first race 300 million years ago, Lemuria 18 million, Atlantean catastrophes 800,000 / 200,000 / 11,000, Aryans over a million, family races, Mahamanvantara of 311 trillion years, immortals with bodies millions of years old. Present from 1950 to the last books.
- The short scale, assembled by him from older pieces (see "Where the short scale comes from" below): one race per sidereal year of 25,968 years, four equal seasons, Hercólubus at each year's end, Aquarius to Aquarius, Katun 13. It appears in its full form from 1973 and dominates the 1975–1977 lectures.
The two scales side by side
"Implied" marks a figure that follows from his statements but that he never states himself.
| Long scale | Short scale | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine, often nearly word for word | His own combination. The parts are older: Blavatsky's axis shifts and sidereal year, four ages inside the precessional cycle as in Sri Yukteswar, Hercólubus. See below. |
| Where it appears | Books from 1950 to the last ones. Clearest in Los Misterios Mayores, Los Cuerpos Solares, Magia de las Runas and La Doctrina Secreta de Anáhuac. | The 1973–77 lectures and Misterios Mayas. A few earlier mentions of the sidereal year's four seasons. |
| Basic clock | Yugas and the Brahmanic figures | The sidereal year: the solar system's journey round the zodiac, "unos 25.968 años" |
| Length of a root race | Never stated as a rule. The Aryan race has "algo más de un millón de años" so far. | "Una Raza no dura más que lo que dura un año sideral." "No puede durar un poco más, ni un poco menos." |
| Are all races the same length? | Not said. His figures imply very unequal lengths. | Yes: "es el mismo proceso para cualquier raza". |
| First race | "Más de trescientos millones de años" ago. Also about 350 million. | It "concluyó también con el Año Sideral". That puts it about 130,000 years ago (implied). |
| Lemuria | "Hace 18.000.000 de años". It took 150,000 years to reach its golden age and 10,000 years to sink. | It lasted one journey round the zodiac. It ended about 52,000 years ago (implied). |
| Atlantis | Three catastrophes: 800,000, 200,000 and 11,000 years ago. Its wars ran across that whole span. | It lasted one journey and ended with the Flood. The Great Pyramid was built by Atlanteans "unos 27.000 años antes de Cristo". |
| Start of the Aryan race | "Hace más de un millón de años", before the first Atlantean catastrophe. An Aryan-Atlantean kingdom stood beside Tibet "hace ya cerca de un millón de años". | "Después del Diluvio Universal", when the journey began in Aquarius. That is about 26,000 years ago (implied). |
| The Flood | 11,000 years ago. This is the last of the three Atlantean catastrophes. | The end of the previous sidereal year. It should be about 26,000 years ago, yet he still dates it 11,000 years ago. |
| End of the Aryan race | "En vísperas de su aniquilación total", with no mechanism tied to a cycle | When the journey returns to Aquarius, with "unos pocos grados" left. Katun 13 begins in 2043. The date 2500 is given first as exact and later as symbolic. |
| What ends a race | Cataclysms of fire and water, and karma | Hercólubus arrives at the end of every sidereal year, the Earth's axes turn over, then fire and water. |
| Divisions of a race | Seven sub-races, each with seven "razas de familia" (said once) | Four equal seasons, which are the Gold, Silver, Copper and Iron Ages. Also 13 Katuns. Seven sub-races are still asserted. |
| Length of a sub-race | Not given | Not given. 25,968 ÷ 7 ≈ 3,700 years (implied). The four-season mapping gives about 6,500 years each to sub-races 1–3 and about 1,600 each to sub-races 4–7 (implied). |
| Overlap between races | Expected. The Aryans coexist with Atlantis for about a million years. Hyperboreans mix with Atlantean sub-races. | Excluded by the rule that when the journey ends, the race ends. He still has Hyperboreans mixing with Atlantean survivors to form the first Aryan sub-race. |
| His own Lemurian body | It "vivió millones de años", through Atlantis into the first Aryan sub-race. | The same span would be two sidereal years, about 52,000 years (implied). |
| Kali Yuga | It began at Krishna's death. Its "primer ciclo" ended in 1899, which is 5,000 years from 3102 BC. By "los cálculos brahmánicos" we are exactly at its middle. | It is the winter quarter of the sidereal year. It began with Greco-Roman culture, and we are at its very end. |
| Seven races in all (one round on this globe) | Hundreds of millions of years | About 182,000 years (implied) |
| Length of a round | Not given | Not given |
| Cosmic day (seven rounds) | 311,040,000,000,000 years | Not addressed. In Pistis Sophia such figures "son simbólicas". |
| Hercólubus | Absent | Central. But he says three things about its orbit: it has no orbit, its orbit is "mucho más grande" than 6,666 years, and it is synchronised with the sidereal year. |
| What supports it | Geological eras (Miocene, Mesozoic) and Blavatsky's chronology | Celestial mechanics: "puede ser demostrado por mecánica celeste, matemática" |
The Flood date is the only figure both scales share. On the long scale, "hace unos 11.000 años" is Blavatsky's date for Poseidonis. On the short scale it is out of place: if the race began after the Flood and lasts exactly one sidereal year, the Flood should be about 26,000 years ago. He keeps the 11,000 years anyway. The other figures that appear in both settings fit only their original scale: the 10,000-year sinking of Lemuria fits only the long scale and is merely repeated as an event in the short-scale lectures, and the pyramid of 27,000 BC fits only the short scale.
The concrete examples he gives for the Aryan sub-races and ages (Egypt, Persia, Solon, Caesar, the Spanish conquest) fit neither scale; they fit a race of roughly 11,000 years since the Flood, which is the one figure both scales share.
Where the short scale comes from
He never credits Yogananda or Sri Yukteswar for it, and its shape differs from theirs, but there is a real overlap (set out after the table). Samael read Yogananda: he cites the Autobiografía de un yogui by name (Gnosis en el siglo XX), discusses his Kriya, names "Sri Yustewar" in the Kriya lineage, and takes Babaji and Lahiri Mahasaya from him. But he never cites Yukteswar on cycles, and the figures 24,000 and 12,000 years do not occur anywhere in his works. The two systems differ as follows (Yukteswar's from the introduction to The Holy Science, 1894, read in the Internet Archive text; the same summary is in the Autobiography, chapter 16):
| Sri Yukteswar | Samael | |
|---|---|---|
| Length of the cycle | 24,000 years | 25,968 years |
| Shape | Two arcs of 12,000 years, descending then ascending | One circuit, always downhill from Gold to Iron |
| Four ages | Unequal, 4,800 / 3,600 / 2,400 / 1,200 years, run twice in mirror order | Four seasons of one year, run once |
| Kali Yuga | Ended about AD 1700; we are in an ascending Dwapara Yuga | Now, and ending in catastrophe |
| End of the cycle | No catastrophe; the ages turn smoothly | Hercólubus, reversal of the poles, destruction of the race |
| Root races | Absent | One per cycle |
What the two share, from The Holy Science itself:
- The four ages are parts of the precessional cycle. This is Yukteswar's distinctive idea, against the Hindu almanacs' 432,000-year Kali Yuga, which he calls a mistake. Blavatsky keeps the 432,000 years and does not put the yugas inside the sidereal year. Samael does put the four ages inside it, as its four seasons.
- The cycle is the sun's own journey, not a wobble of the Earth's axis. Yukteswar: the sun "takes some star for its dual and revolves round it in about 24,000 years of our earth — a celestial phenomenon which causes the backward movement of the equinoctial points around the zodiac", and also "revolves round a grand center called Vishnunabhi". Samael: "el Sistema Solar viaja alrededor del Cinturón Zodiacal", and once "nuestro sistema solar viaja alrededor del sol central en un espacio de unos 25.968 años" (Las dos líneas de la vida §147).
- Aquarius paired with Leo, and the year 2499. The publisher's note to the diagram says the world "will enter the Aquarius-Leo Age… in A.D. 2499". Samael has the journey begin and end "en Acuario" with "Leo enfrente", in the 1950s wrote "comenzó en la constelación de Leo y termina en Leo", and in 1971–72 gave 2500 as the exact final year. He dates Aquarius itself from 1962, so this is a coincidence of figures, not of doctrine.
- His examples fit Yukteswar's descending arc. Yukteswar's dates are: Golden Age from 11,501 BC, Silver from 6701 BC, Bronze (Dwapara) from 3101 BC, Iron (Kali) from 701 BC to AD 499. Samael's examples are: Gold just after a Flood of about 9000 BC, Silver in pre-Vedic southern Asia, Copper with Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, Cyrus, Cambyses and Solon, Iron "con la cultura greco-romana". These match Yukteswar's descending arc period by period, and they are the "roughly 11,000 years" that fit neither of Samael's stated scales. The match could also come from ordinary history plus the classical four ages, so it shows a fit, not a borrowing.
One apparent link is not one. Samael's "En 1899, finalizó el primer ciclo de Kali-yuga" (Curso Zodiacal) and Yukteswar's "In 1899… the true Dwapara Yuga of 2000 years will commence" share a year but not an event. Samael's wording follows Blavatsky's "ciclo de 5.000 años del presente Kali Yuga", counted from 3102 BC.
What he does not take from Yukteswar: the 24,000 years, the two arcs, the unequal ages, the ascending half (for Yukteswar the Kali Yuga ended in 1699 and things are improving), and above all the catastrophes. The Holy Science contains no flood, no destruction, no root races and no continents.
The nearer source is Blavatsky herself, in the commentary on Stanza XI of La Doctrina Secreta (in the search tool's source collection, paragraphs 3917–3922 of the Spanish text):
- "Durante esta Ronda, tiene que haber siete Pralayas terrestres, ocasionados por el cambio en la inclinación del eje de la Tierra", which "marchan pari passu con las Razas". "Ha habido ya cuatro disturbios semejantes del eje. Los antiguos Continentes, excepto el primero, fueron absorbidos por los Océanos."
- She mentions, as a scientific speculation she does not adopt, "el choque repentino de nuestra Tierra con un Cometa, ocasionándose así todas las revoluciones geológicas".
- "La prosperidad y decadencia de las naciones están íntimamente relacionadas con el principio y el fin de este Ciclo Sideral", "el Año Sideral, que equivale a 25.868 de nuestros años solares", and the end of the present one gives humanity "un respiro de unos 16.000 años".
- Elsewhere she remarks on "la relativa semejanza de duración entre una 'raza de familia' y un Año Sideral".
Every element of the short scale is here: an axis shift that ends each race and sinks its continent, the first continent exempt (compare his statement that the first race "no tuvieron que sufrir los cataclismos, pues, todavía existe el continente polar"), an approaching body as the trigger, and the sidereal year as the clock of rise and fall. His figure differs from hers by one digit (25,968 against 25,868; he never uses 25,868).
What he changed: Blavatsky ties the sidereal year to nations and family races and keeps the root races on the scale of millions of years; he ties it to the root race itself. She has 16,000 years still to run; he has "unos pocos grados". He adds the four ages as the year's four seasons (the classical scheme of Hesiod, Virgil and Daniel's statue, all of which he cites), Hercólubus in place of her comet, and the Maya Katun 13. So the short scale is best described as Blavatsky's mechanism (axis shifts, sunk continents, one per race) set on a precessional clock whose four ages resemble Yukteswar's, with Hercólubus and the Katuns added. That is why the two scales share events and cannot share dates.