Geochronology: Theosophy and Science

The Secret Doctrine

F.J. Dick & W. Scott
Science vs. theosophy
The age of the earth

The Secret Doctrine

In H.P. Blavatsky’s day scientists gave widely differing estimates of the length of the
geological periods. For instance, the Eocene was variously claimed to have begun 15 or
2.5 million years ago, and the incrusted age of the earth was put at between 10 million
and 1000 million years (SD 2:685, 796). HPB remarks: ‘whatever figures are given by
Occult Science, they are sure to be corroborated by those of some one among the
modern men of Science’ (SD 2:10fn).

In a section of The Secret Doctrine on ‘esoteric geological chronology’ (2:709-15), HPB

says that the approximate duration of the geological periods can be calculated by
combining scientific and occult data. Geologists are able to determine the thickness of
the various deposits: roughly speaking, she says, the Primordial rocks are 70,000 ft
thick, the Primary 42,000 ft, the Secondary 15,000 ft, the Tertiary 5000 ft, and the
Quaternary about 500 ft. She then quotes the relative lengths of the geological periods
given by Prof. André Lefèvre, who made ‘due allowance for variations in the rate of
deposit’: Primordial Age 53.5%, Primary 32.2%, Secondary 11.5%, Tertiary 2.3%, and
Quaternary 0.5%. Finally, she converts these percentages into years on the basis of the
occult fact that ‘the time which has elapsed since the first sedimentary deposits =
320,000,000 years’:

Duration in years Began (years

(rough approximation) before present)
{ Laurentian }
Primordial { Cambrian } 171,200,000 320,000,000
{ Silurian }

{ Devonian }
Primary { Coal } 103,040,000 148,800,000
{ Permian }

{ Triassic }
Secondary { Jurassic } 36,800,000 45,760,000
{ Cretaceous }
 { Eocene }
Tertiary { Miocene } 7,360,000 8,960,000
{ Pliocene } (probably in excess)

Quaternary 1,600,000 1,600,000

(probably in excess)

HPB comments: ‘Such estimates harmonise with the statements of Esoteric Ethnology
in almost every particular.’

The relative lengths of the Primordial, Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Quaternary
periods given by Lefèvre can be found in his book Philosophy: Historical and Critical
(1879, pp. 480-1; the French edition, La Philosophie, appeared in the same year). He
does not mention the thicknesses of the geological strata and does not explain where
his percentages come from. The thicknesses given by HPB do not match Lefèvre’s
percentages; the biggest difference is that the thickness she gives for the Tertiary
corresponds to a percentage that is 1.5 percentage points higher than the one she cites.
However, the thicknesses would match the percentages almost exactly if the thickness
of Tertiary strata were changed from 5000 ft to 3000 ft. All the thicknesses would then
be the same as those given by Ernst Haeckel in The History of Creation (1880, v. 2, pp.
19-20). Haeckel says that the thickness of Quaternary strata is ‘500 to 700 feet’. Using
700 ft results in the following percentages (rounded to one decimal place), as presented
by Haeckel: Primordial 53.6%, Primary 32.1%, Secondary 11.5%, Tertiary 2.3%,
Quaternary 0.5%. The thicknesses and percentages given by Haeckel are cited in an
article by Edward Clodd (‘The antiquity of Man in Western Europe’, part 1, Knowledge,
v. 1, 1882) that Blavatsky used as a source in writing The Secret Doctrine. In the case
of the Primordial and Primary, the percentages given by Lefèvre/HPB differ from
Haeckel’s (and Clodd’s), but only by 0.1 of a percentage point. Because the durations of
the geological periods calculated by HPB are based on the percentages she states, not
the rock thicknesses, the apparent error in the thickness she gives for Tertiary strata is
of no consequence.

Lefèvre’s book appeared a year before vol. 2 of Haeckel’s The History of Creation. The
first German edition of Haeckel’s work, entitled Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte,
appeared in 1868. It gave the thicknesses for the Primordial, Primary, Secondary and
Tertiary (pp. 301-2), but not for the Quaternary, and did not mention their relative
lengths. However, the second German edition (1870, pp. 349-50), and later editions,
contained the same information as the English edition of 1880 and could have been the
source for the percentages presented by Lefèvre. The French version of Lefèvre’s book
gives the following percentages: 53.5, 32.1, 11.5, 2.3, and 0.5, which only add up to
99.9% (2nd edition, p. 478). The English edition ‘corrects’ this by changing 32.1 to 32.2,
bringing the total percentage to 100. If, instead, Lefèvre had changed 53.5 to 53.6, his
percentages would have precisely matched Haeckel’s, which exactly correspond to the
thicknesses Haeckel gives for the geological strata (provided the figure for the
Quaternary is taken to be 700 ft). These minor discrepancies have little impact on
HPB’s overall calculations. However, using HPB’s figure of 500 ft for Quaternary strata
actually results in a relative duration of 0.38% (not 0.5%), or 1.2 million years, which
would be less ‘in excess’ than the duration of 1.6 million years given in the above table.

The figure of 320 million years refers only to the length of the present, fourth round of
the earth’s evolution: ‘sedimentation began in this Round approximately over 320 million
years ago’, but ‘even a greater time elapsed during the preparation of this globe for the
Fourth Round previous to stratification’ (SD 2:715fn). (Sedimentation is the formation of
rocks by the accumulation and consolidation of mineral and organic fragments that have
been deposited by water, ice or wind.)

G. de Purucker states: ‘According to the Esoteric Tradition, it is some 320,000,000

years since sedimentation began on this globe in this fourth round, nor does this long
lapse of time fully include the evolution of the three kingdoms of the elementals which
preceded the mineral activities beginning such sedimentation.’ He adds that the first
human root-race did not begin until after the awakenment from their obscuration of the
mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms (except the mammals, which in the fourth
round followed man) (The Esoteric Tradition, 3rd ed., 159-60; Dialogues of G. de
Purucker, 3:181-2).

Purucker also says: ‘When the Masters or H.P.B. speak of the 320 million years since
sedimentation on our earth took place, they refer to the beginning of this round on globe
A; and when the impulse of the three elemental kingdoms, followed by the mineral
kingdom, reached our earth, then not only sedimentation but volcanic action began’
(Studies in Occult Philosophy, 288, 422).

These quotations could be interpreted to mean that geological activity began on globe D
at virtually the same time as on globe A. But if 320 million years is just an approximate,
rounded figure, the two events could be separated by millions of years. Indeed,
Purucker also says that sedimentation began on globe D between 300 and 320 million
years ago (Dialogues, 3:181).

HPB says that the lengths of the Tertiary and Quaternary as given in the above table are
‘probably in excess’. This is also implied by her statement that only if the Quaternary
period is allowed 1,500,000 years does our fifth root-race belong to it (SD 2:715).
Another indication is provided by HPB’s comments on the submergence of the islands
of Ruta and (part of) Daitya (see SD 1:650-1; GdeP, Studies in Occult Philosophy, 19,
24). The date most commonly given for this event is 850,000 years ago, another being
869,000 years ago (SD 2:147). HPB writes:

The Tertiary Atlantean part-cycle, from the ‘apex of glory’ of that Race in the
early Eocene to the great mid-Miocene cataclysm, would appear to have
lasted some 3½ to four million years. If the duration of the Quaternary is not
rather (as seems likely) overestimated, the sinking of Ruta and Daitya would
be post-Tertiary. It is probable that the results here given allow somewhat too
long a period to both the Tertiary and Quaternary, as the Third Race goes
very far back into the Secondary Age. (SD 2:710)

A date of 850,000 years would fall in the mid-Quaternary according to the above table,
but HPB implies here that the sinking of Ruta actually occurred in the (late) Tertiary.

This is supported by several other statements:

• The destruction of Ruta and Daitya occurred 850,000 years ago ‘in the later Pliocene
times’ (SD 2:314).
• The main continent of Atlantis perished in Miocene times, but the ‘Pliocene portions’
began gradually sinking 900,000 years ago, at the time of the first appearance of the
Aryan race; most of the later islander Atlanteans perished between 850,000 and
700,000 years ago, and the Aryans were 200,000 years old when the first great island
or continent was submerged (SD 2:395).

We can conclude that the transition from the Tertiary to the Quaternary (or from the
Pliocene to the Pleistocene epoch) took place between 900,000 and 700,000 years ago
rather than 1,600,000 years ago.

HPB writes: ‘This event, the destruction of the famous island of Ruta and the smaller
one Daitya, which occurred 850,000 years ago in the later Pliocene times, must not be
confounded with the submersion of the main continent of Atlantis during the Miocene
period’ (SD 2:314fn). But in the next sentence she says: ‘Geologists cannot place the
Miocene only so short a way back as 850,000 years; whatever they do, it is several
million years ago that the main Atlantis perished.’ She also states: ‘The first of these
[family races] (the “Aryan-Asiatics”) witnessed the doom of the last of the populations of
the “giant Atlanteans” who perished some 850,000 years ago (the Ruta and Daitya
Island-Continents) toward the close of the Miocene Age’ (SD 2:433). The idea that the
Miocene ended only 850,000 years ago clashes with all other statements on this subject
and is undoubtedly a blind.

F.J. Dick & W. Scott

In an article entitled ‘The age of the earth’ (The Theosophical Path, April 1919, pp. 369-
79), Frederick J. Dick and William Scott provide more detailed figures on the
thicknesses of the geological strata. Using the same method as HPB, they present the
following ‘rough outline of the earth’s physical history’:

Period Approx. thickness Began (years BP)

of strata (ft)

Primordial 35,000 320,000,000

Cambrian 28,000 250,000,000
Silurian 23,000 194,000,000

Devonian 19,000 148,000,000

Carboniferous 18,000 110,000,000
Permian 15,000 74,000,000

Triassic 8,000 44,000,000

Jurassic 6,000 28,000,000
Cretaceous 4,000 16,000,000
 Eocene 2,000 7,870,000
Miocene 1,000 3,670,000
Pliocene 500 1,870,000

Pleistocene etc. 500 870,000

(The thicknesses for Tertiary and Quaternary deposits have been rounded off by the
authors and therefore do not exactly correspond to the dates.)

According to these figures, the Eocene began 7,870,000 years ago and the Pleistocene
870,000 years ago, as compared with HPB’s dates of 8,960,000 BP and 1,600,000 BP,
which she says are ‘probably in excess’. The revised dates for the Tertiary are also in
good agreement with HPB’s statement that the period from the apex of glory of the
Atlanteans in the early Eocene to the mid-Miocene cataclysm lasted some 3.5 to 4
million years (SD 2:710).

Science vs. theosophy

Since Blavatsky’s day science has established an almost universally accepted

geological timescale, based largely on radiometric dating. However, radiometric dates
are valid only if radioactive decay rates remain constant during the period in question.
From a theosophical viewpoint, not only are decay rates far from constant; during the
arc of descent, comprising the first half of the earth’s life, the dominant trend was
towards the condensation and materialization of matter – the opposite of radioactivity.
The ascending arc began a few million years ago, and dematerialization or
etherealization has now become the dominant trend. Radioactivity is a sign of
dematerialization, and can be expected to increase in intensity and affect more and
more elements as the earth continues to evolve along the upward arc. Because science
takes no account of the arc of descent, its use of radiometric dating is flawed, and this
explains why the durations it assigns to the geological periods are excessively long.

Instead of apportioning the 320 million years that have elapsed since the start of the 4th
round to the geologic periods on the basis of the relative thickness of the geologic
strata, this could be done on the basis of the relative length in years derived from
radiometric dates. However, the percentages differ markedly from those given by HPB
and by Dick & Scott, as the following table shows:

Lefèvre/HPB Dick & Scott Modern science

Primordial 53.5 53.7 34.5
Primary 32.2 32.5 26.1
Secondary 11.5 11.3 29.1
Tertiary 2.3 2.2 9.9
Quaternary 0.5 0.3 0.4
Clearly use of the scientific percentages would lead to dates very different to those
given by HPB.

The table below shows the modern scientific dates for the geological periods alongside
theosophical dates. The scientific dates are taken from the 2013 International
Stratigraphic Chart (www.stratigraphy.org). Modern geological nomenclature differs in
some respects from that used by Blavatsky. For instance, the Eocene is now divided
into Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene, and the Ordovician period has been inserted
between the Cambrian and Silurian, and comprises part of both. The Cambrian is now
taken as the beginning of the Palaeozoic era. The Laurentian would fall into the
Precambrian era; in HPB’s time ‘Laurentian’ denoted the 30,000 ft of rocks underlying
the Cambrian strata, but the term is no longer used in this sense. The scientific date for
the Laurentian has been calculated on the basis of the thicknesses of the Palaeozoic
and Laurentian strata given by Dick & Scott, and the duration of the Palaeozoic era
according to radiometric dating. In 2009 the International Union of Geological Sciences
redefined the Pleistocene to include part of the preceding Pliocene, moving the start
date back from 1.806 to 2.588 million years ago.

The theosophical figures are those given by Dick & Scott, with a few alterations and
additions. The duration of the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene has been determined
by dividing up Dick & Scott’s Eocene according to the maximum thickness of the
Palaeocene, Eocene and Oligocene strata according to science (3658 m, 9144 m and
7925 m respectively; R. Milton, The Facts of Life, 1992, plate 1). The duration of the
Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian has been determined using the same method
(thickness: 12,200 m, 12,200 m, and 10,400 m respectively). The beginning of the
Pleistocene has been moved back to include the same proportion of the Pliocene as in
the revised scientific scheme.

Major pulses of tectonic activity on earth are dated radiometrically at around 3000-2800,
2600-2500, 2200-2000, 1800-1600, 1200, 1000-900, and 600-500 million years ago.
The last of these corresponds to the onset of the fourth round.

Science Theosophy
Began (years
Began (years BP)
BP)
Phanerozoic eon
Cenozoic era
Quaternary
period:
Holocene epoch 11,700
Pleistocene 2,588,000 1,090,000
Tertiary period:
Pliocene epoch 5,333,000 1,870,000
Miocene 23,030,000 3,670,000
Oligocene 33,900,000 5,280,000
Eocene 56,000,000 7,130,000
Palaeocene 66,000,000 7,870,000
 Mesozoic era
Cretaceous 145,000,000 16,000,000
Jurassic 201,300,000 28,000,000
Triassic 252,170,000 44,000,000

Palaeozoic era
Permian 298,900,000 74,000,000
Carboniferous 358,900,000 110,000,000
Devonian 419,200,000 148,000,000
Silurian 443,400,000 179,000,000
Ordovician 485,400,000 214,000,000
Cambrian 541,000,000 250,000,000

Proterozoic eon
(Laurentian) (640,000,000) 320,000,000 (start of 4th round)
Neoproterozoic 1,000,000,000
Mesoproterozoic 1,600,000,000 (720,000,000; start of 3rd round?)
Palaeoproterozoic 2,500,000,000

Archean eon
(1,220,000,000; start of 2nd
Neoarchean 2,800,000,000
round?)
Mesoarchean 3,200,000,000
Palaeoarchean 3,600,000,000
Eoarchean 4,000,000,000

Hadean eon 4,600,000,000 1,973,000,000 (start of 1st round)

The age of the earth

‘Make thy calculations, O Lanoo, if thou wouldst learn the correct age of thy
small wheel.’ (Stanzas of Dzyan, 6:7)

In Hindu philosophy, one lifetime of the earth is called a day of Brahmā. It is said to last
4,320,000,000 years, and to be followed by a night of Brahmā of equal length. A day of
Brahmā, or kalpa, consists of 14 manvantaras of 306,720,000 years each, framed by 15
sandhis (a ‘dawn’ or ‘twilight’) of 1,728,000 years each. Each manvantara of
306,720,000 years consists of 71 mahā-yugas of 4,320,000 years. Each mahā-yuga
consists of a krita- (or satya-) yuga of 1,728,000 years, a tretā-yuga of 1,296,000 years,
a dvāpara-yuga of 864,000 years, and a kali-yuga of 432,000 years (SD 2:69-70).
We are currently in the kali-yuga of the twenty-eighth age (mahā-yuga) of the seventh
manvantara (Isis Unveiled, 1:32). The kali-yuga began in February 3102 BC.* On the
basis of this information, the time that has elapsed since the beginning of the present
day of Brahmā up to February 2000 can be calculated as follows:

6 manvantaras (1,840,320,000) + 7 sandhis (12,096,000) + 27 mahā-yugas

(116,640,000) + 1 krita-yuga (1,728,000) + 1 tretā-yuga (1,296,000) + 1 dvāpara-yuga
(864,000) + the time from the beginning of kali-yuga (3102 + 2000 - 1)** =
1,972,949,101 years.

*According to the Brahmans of Tiruvarur, the astronomical epoch began at sunrise on 18

February 3102 BC, and the civil era began at about 2.27 am on 16 February 3102 BC (SD
1:661-2). The kali-yuga is also said to have begun at midnight between 17 and 18 February
3102 BC (SD 2:435; Blavatsky Collected Writings, 5:58; R.L. Thompson, Vedic Cosmography
and Astronomy, 1989, pp. 19-22).
**The date of 3102 BC for the start of the kali-yuga is a chronological date rather than an
astronomical date; in chronological dating there is no year zero between 1 BC and 1 AD,
whereas in astronomical dating there is. In calculating the time that has elapsed since the
beginning of kali-yuga and 2000, it is therefore necessary to subtract ‘1’ in the above sum. (If
we used the equivalent astronomical date of 3101 BC, there would be no need for this.) That
3102 BC is a chronological date is indicated by J.S. Bailly in a calculation quoted in the SD
(1:666-7), and is confirmed by Subba Row (Esoteric Writings, pp. 55-6; BCW 5:261-2). Hence
the first 5000 years of the kali-yuga ended in February 1899 (= 5000 - 3102 + 1) and not in
1897/98, contrary to what is often stated (see Theos. Forum, Nov. 1937, p. 394).

The time that elapsed from the beginning of the present kalpa up to 1887 was therefore:
1,972,948,998 years. However, according to The Secret Doctrine (2:68), the Tamil
calendar called the Tiru-ganita Pañchānga gives the following figures:

1,955,884,687
From the beginning of cosmic evolution up to 1887
years
The (astral) mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms up to man,
have
taken to evolve 300,000,000 years*
Time from the first appearance of ‘humanity’ on our planetary 1,664,500,987
chain years

HPB points out that subtracting 300,000,000 from the first figure gives 1,655,884,687,
which differs from the third figure. She says that she cannot account for this
discrepancy. She also states that the school of Pandit Dayanand Sarasvatī, founder of
the Ārya Samaj, gives yet another date: 1,960,852,987 years.

*As HPB says, these Brahmanical figures refer to the evolution beginning on globe A in the
first round. But she points out that the period of 300,000,000 years also applies to the start of
the fourth round: ‘The astral prototypes of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms up to
man have taken that time (300 million years) to evolve, re-forming out of the cast-off materials
of the preceding Round, which, though very dense and physical in their own cycle, are
relatively ethereal as compared with the materiality of our present middle Round. At the
expiration of these 300 million years, Nature, on the way to the physical and material, down
the arc of descent, begins with mankind and works downwards, hardening or materialising
forms as it proceeds’ (SD 2:68fn; see also 2:52).

The three figures quoted in the SD that need to be reconciled are therefore:
1,955,884,687
1,664,500,987
1,960,852,987
We also need to explain why the first and third of these figures differ from the figure of
1,972,948,998 years calculated above for the time that has elapsed from the beginning
of the present kalpa to 1887.

The solution to the problem was first presented by Hans Malmstedt in an article entitled
‘Our position in time on globe D’ (The Theosophical Path, October 1933, pp. 226-35;
see also July 1931, pp. 63-9).

The last three digits of the three figures from the SD are: 687, 987, 987. Malmstedt says
that the number 687 must be wrong, and that the mistake may have arisen by a
compositor turning the 9 upside down to make a 6 while setting up the number 987.
HPB used the edition of the calendar for 1884-85 (SD 2:50-1); earlier editions confirm
that the 6 should be a 9 (see prajnaquest.fr; prajnaquest.fr).

A second minor error was made by both the writers of the Tamil calendar and Pandit
Sarasvatī in calculating the time that has elapsed since the start of the kali-yuga. In the
SD (1:650) we are told: ‘The Hindus date their Kali Yug from a great periodical
conjunction of the planets thirty-one centuries B.C.’ The calculation was evidently done
in this way: 3100 + 1887 = 4987. But as explained above, it ought to be: 3100 + 1887 -
1 = 4986. (A similar mistake is made at SD 2:69.) The last three figures of each of the
three numbers above should therefore be: 986.

The third and final correction concerns the fact that the kali-yuga actually began in 3102
BC, not 3100 BC. The calculation is therefore: 3102 + 1887 -1 = 4988, so that the last
three digits of the three numbers should be 988.

If we now add another 113 years so that the numbers apply to the year 2000 rather than
1887, they become:
(1) 1,955,885,101 years
(2) 1,664,501,101 years
(3) 1,960,853,101 years
whereas the number we originally calculated was:
(4) 1,972,949,101 years.
All these numbers are essentially correct, as will now be explained.

Subtracting (1) from (4) gives: 17,064,000 years. What does this number represent?
The answer is to be found in the ancient Hindu astronomical text, the Sūrya-Siddhānta.
Chapter 1, verse 24 reads: ‘47,400 divine years passed while the God Brahmā was
employed in creating animate and inanimate things, planets, stars, gods, demons, and
the rest.’ Since one divine year equals 360 solar years, 47,400 divine years are equal to
17,064,000 solar years. In other words, the present kalpa on earth began with a period
of divine activity lasting 17,064,000 years, and only then did the period of what HPB
calls ‘cosmic evolution’ begin.*

*In the SD (2:68) HPB writes: ‘The esoteric doctrine says that this “cosmic evolution” refers
only to our solar system; while exoteric Hinduism makes the figures refer, if we do not mistake,
to the whole Universal System.’ However, in the very next footnote she states: ‘The above
Brahmanical figures refer to the evolution beginning on Globe A [of the earth planetary chain],
and in the First Round.’ (A similar statement is made at BCW 13:301.)
According to the SD, it took the astral mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms up to
man 300,000,000 years to evolve. However, the difference between numbers (1) and
(2) is only 291,384,000 years. The solution to this puzzle becomes apparent if we
subtract (2) from (4), for we then get: 308,448,000. This is exactly equal to one full
manvantara, i.e. one manvantara of 306,720,000 years plus one sandhi period of
1,728,000 years (or a dawn and twilight of 864,000 years each). In other words, the first
appearance of ‘humanity’ on earth occurred a whole manvantara of 308,448,000 years
after the beginning of the present kalpa, and therefore only 291,384,000 years after the
beginning of ‘cosmic evolution’ 17,064,000 years later.

Finally, subtracting (3) from (4) gives: 12,096,000 years. This is equal to 7 x 1,728,000.
In other words, the date given by Sarasvatī is the time that has elapsed since the
beginning of the present kalpa, but it excludes the seven sandhis appearing before and
after each of the six manvantaras that have so far elapsed.

In conclusion, according to Hindu chronology, the time that has elapsed from the
beginning of the present day of Brahmā up to February 2000 is 1,972,949,101 years
(but see Secret cycles, section 5, for a correction to this figure). It should be noted,
however, that the Hindu figures for a day of Brahmā and its subdivisions, based on the
number 4320, are only approximations, albeit close ones, to the occult figures. HPB
comments: ‘not one of the exact numbers will ever be given out, as they pertain to the
Mysteries of Initiations and to the Secrets of the occult influence of Numbers’ (BCW
13:306).

by David Pratt. June 1999. Last updated: Oct 2018.

Root-race chronology

Rounds and manvantaras: an outline

Geological timescale

Evolution in the fourth round

Secret cycles

The age of earth

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