Inner and Outer Rounds
The inner rounds are the passage of the twelve life-waves or families of monads through the twelve globes of a planetary chain, while the outer rounds are the passage of the life-waves from planetary chain to planetary chain, or from solar system to solar system. The inner and outer rounds are of two types: major and minor. The major inner and outer rounds are made by the life-waves collectively, while the minor inner and outer rounds are made by individual monads during sleep, after death, and during initiation.During a (major) inner round, the life-waves pass in serial order from globe to globe of a planetary chain, on each of which they undergo seven (or twelve) gyrations or root-races. Between two successive globe-rounds, there is a period of interglobal rest, equal to one-tenth of the time spent on the globe just left, and between one planetary round and the next there is a period of interround nirvana. It is our higher human monad, or chain-monad, which undertakes the inner rounds, and on each globe it emanates a globe-monad, which clothes itself in the appropriate life-atoms furnished by the globe concerned.
The other globes of the earth-chain are also visited after death, during sleep, and during initiations, but for much shorter periods of time. The death of the physical body is followed by the second death in the kâma-loka where our lower astral nature is cast off. The human ego is withdrawn into the aura of its monadic essence and sinks into its blissful devachanic sleep. The chain-monad passes through the globes of the ascending arc, pausing in each one to shed the life-atoms native to that sphere. It projects a portion of its consciousness which takes temporary embodiment in an appropriate vehicle, but the human monad as a whole does not perceive or feel what is going on around it to any appreciable degree. An exception to this -- in varying degrees -- is formed by advanced fourth rounders, fifth rounders and sixth rounders, and initiants. During initiations, the inner self of the initiant not only wings its way to the other globes of our planetary chain and gains first-hand experience there, but also visits the other planets and the sun.
The spiritual monad has a different reembodying monad, or chain-monad, on each one of the seven sacred planets. At present our spiritual monads are especially bound to the earth-chain since this is our current station on the outer rounds. During the post-mortem outer rounds, we merely touch the globes of these chains, but when during the grand outer rounds our life-wave moves to another planetary chain, that planet will remain our station for a whole solar manvantara. The order of the outer rounds through the seven sacred planets is: Vulcan (?), Jupiter, Venus, Earth, Mercury, Mars, Lilith (?) (Dialogues 1:21, 72; Fountain-Source 141, 151).
During its post-mortem peregrinations, the spiritual monad, carrying the higher energies, or 'aroma', of the human soul in its bosom, follows the spiritual-magnetic pathways known as the circulations of the cosmos, which correspond to the nerves and blood vessels in the human physical body. As with the devachan, the length and nature of the post-mortem outer round are determined by the moral, spiritual, and intellectual quality of the last earth-life.
During its post-mortem passage through the planetary chains the monad frees itself of the vehicle belonging to each chain. It strips off all the seven 'coatings' with which it has enwrapped itself during its long evolutionary journey until it is finally able to enter the solar chain -- its native spiritual home. On its return journey to the earth-chain the monad passes through the same seven planets in reverse order and on each one it picks up and reassumes the life-atoms forming the 'coatings' that it had previously cast off.
The monad passes through the entire planetary chain of each of the seven planets. On each globe it produces a ray from itself, a temporary psychomental apparatus or soul, which takes embodiment in a suitable vehicle -- spiritual, ethereal, astral, or physical. This ray is 'native' to the planet on which it manifests, and passes through its various cyclical periods of life, gathering experience and gaining in understanding. Finally, this new manifestation of monadic activity comes to a close and is withdrawn into the bosom of the monad where it rests in its own devachan. Meanwhile, the higher principles associated with the monad are released and proceed to the next planet, to which they are carried by psychomagnetic karmic attraction along the circulations of the cosmos. The same process is repeated on each of the seven sacred planets.
Having reached the highest sphere, the monad turns back and retraces its steps because the attractions and inner aspirations which had previously caused it to rise through the spheres have now exhausted their energies, and the latent seeds of thought and feeling stored in the monad in previous earth-lives, because of their origination in material spheres, now begin to pull the monad downwards. The spiritual and psychical processes are so wonderfully adjusted that when the reincarnating ego is reaching the end of its devachanic sleep, the spiritual monad has just reached that part of its peregrinations which brings it to the highest globe of the earth-chain.
During the descent of the reembodying ego through the earth-chain, there is a transitory sojourn on each globe for the purpose of recollecting the appropriate life-atoms which had been previously cast off by the monad during its ascent and which have been peregrinating to and fro in the intervening period. Finally, the reincarnating ego, the ray of the human monad, projects its own ray into the karmically appropriate human seed-germ which in time will grow to be the body of the new-born child.
We began the present solar manvantara on the earth-chain as unselfconscious god-sparks and it takes seven chain-reembodiments for us to raise ourselves to the status of selfconscious gods. By analogy, the same process will have to be gone through on each of the planetary chains during the grand outer rounds, for the purpose of becoming masters of life on each chain. The outer rounds through the seven (or twelve) sacred planetary chains of the solar system are repeated seven (or twelve) times. In addition to the outer rounds from planetary chain to planetary chain, there are also outer rounds from solar system to solar system, undertaken by the divine monad. And over even longer periods of time there will be outer rounds from galaxy to galaxy, metagalaxy to metagalaxy, etc. etc.
Everything is relative: for the chain monad, the passage from globe to globe is the inner round and from planet to planet the outer round; for the spiritual monad, the passage from planet to planet would be an inner round, and from solar system to solar system the outer round; and for the divine monad, the passage from solar system to solar system would be the inner round, and from galaxy to galaxy the outer round. There are inner and outer rounds at every level and on every scale. For example, just as the chain-monad pursues its rounds from globe to globe, so the life-atoms of our bodies pursue their 'rounds' and peregrinations in and through the various layers of our auric egg.
Theosophy paints a magnificent panorama of evolution. We are not worms of the dust, doomed to live a single meaningless life on earth, but children of the cosmos, sparks of divinity, on an eternal evolutionary adventure through the infinite fields of space and time.
References:
The Esoteric Tradition, 839-78.
Dialogues of G. de Purucker, 1:244-6, 2:306, 3:275-85.
Fountain-Source of Occultism, 350-60, 599-603, 627-36.
by David Pratt. November 1997.