The well-known Kabalistic aphorism runs:
-- "A stone becomes a plant; a plant, a beast; the beast,
a man; a man a spirit; and the spirit a god." The "spark"
animates all the kingdoms in turn before it enters into and informs
divine man, between whom and his predecessor, animal man, there
is all the difference in the world Secret Doctrine I, I, 7b, p. 246
This explains also the hidden Kabalistic meaning of the saying: “The Breath
becomes a stone; the stone, a plant; the plant, an animal; the animal, a
man; the man, a spirit; and the spirit, a god.” The Mind-born Sons, the
Rishis, the Builders, etc., were all men – of whatever forms and shapes
– in other worlds and the preceding Manvantaras. Secret Doctrine I, I, 5.1, p. 107
That man originates like other animals in a cell and develops
"through stages undistinguishable from those of fish, reptile,
and mammal until the cell attains the highly specialized development
of the quadrumanous and at last the human type,"
is an Occult axiom thousands of years old. The Kabalistic
axiom: "A stone becomes a plant; a plant a beast; a beast
a man; a man a God," holds good throughout the ages. Secret Doctrine 2 I, 10, 258
It's difficult to find a specific reference for this. There is a Hasidic text:
The Holy Sparks that fell when G-d built and destroyed the world should
be purified and lifted up by man: from stone to plant, from plant to
animal, from animal to the speaking being, he should cleanse the Holy
Spark, which is surrounded by power of the shell. This is the essential
meaning of everyone’s service in Israel. (Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer so called Baal Shem Tov, or Master of the Good
Name, instruction on G-d / compiled by Martin Buber, transl. Jan
Doktór, Warsaw 1993, p. 13)
It can also be found in poetry of Rumi:
I died to the inorganic state and became endowed with
growth, and [then] I died to [vegetable] growth and attained to the animal.
I died from animality and became Adam: why, then, should I
fear? When have I become less by dying?
At the next remove I shall die to man, that I may soar and
lift up my head amongst the angels;
And I must escape even from the angel: everything is perishing except His Face.
[Q 55, 26–27]
Rūmī, Ğalāl al-Dīn. 1973. Divani Shamsi Tabrizi. Translated by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson. San Francisco: Rainbow Bridge.
The passage below, although included in Nicholson's edition, is not present in the earliest Persian manuscripts, and so is generally considered apocryphal. Whoever the composer may have been, it is quite esoteric and theosophical.
Everything you see has its roots
in the unseen world.
The forms may change,
yet the essence remains the same.
Every wondrous sight will vanish,
every sweet word will fade.
But do not be disheartened,
The Source they come from is eternal--
growing, branching out,
giving new life and new joy.
Why do you weep?--
That Source is within you,
and this whole world
is springing up from it.
The Source is full,
its waters are ever-flowing;
Do not grieve,
drink your fill!
Don't think it will ever run dry--
This is the endless Ocean!
From the moment you came into this world,
a ladder was placed in front of you
that you might transcend it.
From earth, you became plant,
from plant you became animal.
Afterwards you became a human being,
endowed with knowledge, intellect and faith.
Behold the body, born of dust--
how perfect it has become!
Why should you fear its end?
When were you ever made less by dying?
When you pass beyond this human form,
no doubt you will become an angel
and soar through the heavens!
But don't stop there.
Even heavenly bodies grow old.
Pass again from the heavenly realm
and plunge into the ocean of Consciousness.
Let the drop of water that is you
become a hundred mighty seas.
But do not think that the drop alone
becomes the Ocean--
the Ocean, too, becomes the drop!
Divani Shamsi Tabrizi, #12, (Nicholson,1898, pp. 46-49) not
in critical editions
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