It should therefore be borne in mind that the physical bodies in which humanity now dwells are constructed of very ancient matter and that the substance employed is tainted or conditioned by the history of the past. Secondly, each physical body carries within itself the seeds of inevitable retribution, if its functions are misused. The great original sin in Lemurian times was sexual in nature, and due largely not only to inherent tendencies, but to the extraordinarily dense population of its civilization and to the close relation of the animal kingdom. The origin of the syphilitic diseases traces back to these times. There is a beautiful idea in the minds of the ignorant that primitive races are free from that type of contamination and that the many sexual diseases and their results are predominantly the diseases of civilization.
True knowledge disproves it.
Deep in the soil the evil lies, emerging into form from time to time, and only fire and suffering can cleanse the mother of the evil which her children have given unto her. The Lemurian race practically destroyed itself, owing to its misuse of the sacral center, which was at that time the most active and the dominant center. The work of the Hierarchy in Lemurian days was, as I have told you elsewhere, to teach infant humanity the nature, meaning and significance of the physical vehicle, just as in the next race, the emotional was fostered and the major object of attention, and in our race, it is the mind which is subjected to stimulation. The initiate in Lemurian times was one who had completely mastered the control of the body, and hatha-yoga was then the outstanding spiritual practice. This is not the type of activity which is now possible, because it must be remembered that the Master in those days had not the development or the understanding of the Masters of today, the only exceptions being Those Who had come from other schemes and spheres to aid animal-man and primitive humanity.