The legacy of Atlantis: part two
An investigation in three parts of the migrations of the Atlanteans and the colonies they founded around the world
Introduction
In the first part of this three-part investigation we discussed the location of Atlantis, how the survivors of the several cataclysms which destroyed it fared in the various places they migrated to, the linguistic links between Atlantis and our own world, Lemuria, and some of the useful plants the Atlanteans developed. In this and the final part we explore this rich legacy further, and in our afterword tell you more about the Oera Linda Book. If you have not read part one, now is the time to do so, or you will not reap the full benefits of this part of our investigation.
The Pyramid belt
As we have seen in part one, the old culture of Atlantis once stretched from America to Babylon, and to the Indies, and Egypt. One of the most enduring and impressive achievements of this culture was the construction of massive pyramids. There is a sort of pyramid belt which begins in Armenia and Mesopotamia, and, after passing through Egypt jumps across the Atlantic and is continued through Yucatan, the Mexican tableland, Guatemala and San Salvador. The pyramids built by the Toltecs and Maya are orientated in the most precise fashion, and their astronomical significance is beyond all doubt. This belt may perhaps be an indication of the borders of the Atlantean Colonies, or else they show how far the Atlanteans penetrated the old Continents of Europe, Asia and Africa when they fled from the Motherland.
In The Shadow of Atlantis by Colonel Braghine we are told about a mysterious prehistoric race in America, preceding the Toltecs, Maya, and other cultured peoples of South America. This mysterious race, the book tells us, possessed great mathematical knowledge, and were masters of Astronomy, as well as of other sciences, and constructed many fine pyramids which were all exactly orientated. By means of this orientation, scientists believe that they have found the date of construction of these marvellous buildings, and they place it at from 3,000 B.C., in some cases, whilst others were built later. This is of course based upon the position of the stars, and about 25,000 years ago certain stars would occupy the same places, more or less, allowing for the difference in their rates of progress through the Universe as those which they fill today. So if an astronomer wishes to find out at what time in history a pyramid was built so that, say, the light of the pole star would enter that pyramid on a certain day, he calculates the difference in position as it is now, and thus may arrive at 5,000 years ago, when the pole star would throw its light into the interior. But 25,000 years before that date of 3,000 B.C., that star might enter the same spot too, or any number of 25,000 years previously. So we do not get the date for certain in this manner, for that pyramid may have been built 28,000 B.C., or 53,000 B.C., and the chances are that such dates may be correct, and 3,000 B.C., quite wrong.
There is for instance the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, which was certainly built many millenniums before our era, and not a mere 5,000 years ago, much less around 200 B.C., as the latest 'scientific' sources now tell us. The same applies to the Great Pyramid of Egypt, which is vastly more ancient than the Egyptologists and 'experts' believe, who have been led astray in the same manner as those who have calculated by means of orientation the age of that pyramid, and certain American ones. Nor were any pyramids in Babylonia, or in Egypt, copies of the American ones, as some very misguided writers have suggested. No; these ancient monuments or edifices were copies of those which existed in Atlantis, though we agree that the Toltecs and Maya copied the older pyramids in their country from the Pyramid of Teotihuacan, which marvellous edifice we shall discuss in more depth in the final part of this investigation.
Now, these pyramids were certainly not built in order to impress all and sundry with their vast proportions, or the economic wealth and power of the builders, as we are told by the unthinking was the case. They were built for a specific purpose, to do with religion, and the old Mysteries, and not as 'tombs' as the idiots say. That some tombs in pyramid form were built on many, many occasions, does not make of these other great and wonderful buildings tombs; not even for 'giants'. But they built them for eternity, so to say, using huge monoliths, whilst the pyramidal shape helped to withstand the onslaughts of the weather, and other natural forms of destruction. The use of huge stones was carried on in many parts of the world in antiquity and always for the same reasons. But pyramids were not the only buildings of cyclopean proportions, and one such is the great temple-observatory, with its monolithic portal, of Tiahuanaco, which some scholars estimate to be about 15,000 years old, at least.
Just as during the 19th and 20th centuries many people from England emigrated to parts of the British Commonwealth such as Australia and other places, because there was too large a population in the British Isles for comfort, so in the days of Atlantis the same thing happened, and the Atlanteans streamed away in all directions for thousands of years, creating along their various routes, monuments, and other tokens of the Atlantean civilisation, but always tinged with the colours of the various peoples of Atlantis, showing, however, certain fundamental characteristics of the whole of that great Continent. This accounts for the fact that the pyramids in Egypt and South America have the same main features, but differ in details, so that in some of the South American pyramids we find even greater mystical knowledge concealed and revealed than in the so-called Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.
Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan
Atlantis in Spain and France
We told you in our first article about Atlantis that we believe an important Atlantean colony existed in Spain, basing this assumption on the records described in a most interesting book published in 1928 called Atlantis in Andalucia by E. M. Whishaw (1857-1937). Although the original is rather scarce, the book was reprinted in paperback under the new title Atlantis in Spain in 1997 by Adventures Unlimited Press, Illinois, USA, so if the subject interests you, we recommend you try to find a copy of this edition.
One of the reasons for an Atlantean colony in Southern Spain may be the presence there in very ancient times of gold, silver and copper, which latter metal is the famous 'orichalcum' of the ancients. Whishaw relates that: "in the Province of Cadiz there are families of blonds with hair which in childhood is sometimes quite flaxen, long almond-shaped grey or blue eyes, high cheek-bones, and beautifully formed aquiline noses springing almost directly from the forehead. The type is so completely foreign in Spain that once seen it cannot be forgotten. It has no resemblance to the northern blonds or any other fair people in Europe. It appears here and there in the midst of brown-eyed and black-haired members of the same family, with a freakish inconsistency which can only be attributed to atavism." She goes on to add that in her view this variation of the common racial type is a throw-back to the Atlanteans who colonised this part of Spain in the distant past. We agree.
In 2011, a television documentary made by the American National Geographic Society and shown in the United States, was presented by Professor Richard Freund, who claimed that the lost 'city' of Atlantis was located in what is now a national park north of Cadiz. The documentary was greeted by the usual sceptical snorts of derision from scientists around the world, despite the fact that all the good professor had really discovered by means of the modern tools of digital mapping, deep-ground radar and satellite imagery, were the remains of rectangular buildings and concentric stone circles suggestive of a large buried city. Unless we wish to dismiss all such discoveries and discount the testimony of the very many ancient and modern writers who have written about Tartessos, we are compelled to accept that an important Atlantean colony existed there at one time. The Atlantean colonists of both the above mentioned states were defeated at first by the Ibers-Gerions and then retreated eastwards with all possible speed, and in turn invaded Greece and Egypt, where they were also defeated in the end. It seems that the Atlantean Colonies extended right along North Africa, Etruria, and present day Dalmatia and Albania.
In this connection we cannot omit to mention a discovery made in Brittany, in France in the last century. The estuary of the rivulet La Vie suffers from periodic low tides of an exceptional character, and these occur generally at the time of the autumn equinox. One of these low tides occurred in September 1928, and a certain French professor Baudouin, explored at that time a certain rock near the beach, for he had been told by the fishermen of the village that this rock was covered with mysterious signs, and this aroused his curiosity. So he went to the rock and began to clean off the slime and seaweed and thick layers of various deposits, and at last he found amazing bas-reliefs, including the face of a man who was exactly like the well-known Maya type in South America, with the eagle nose, sloping forehead, thick lips, and other characteristics of the Mayan gods, whose images are found in large quantities in America. Even the pointed beard and tuft of hair at the top of the head were there. Professor Baudouin was enabled to place the approximate age of the prehistoric sculpture at about the end of the Neolithic period, or about 9,000 years ago.
But what is still more interesting is that the nose and profile on the stone in question bear a striking resemblance to the noses and profiles of the modern inhabitants of the country in the neighbourhood of the stone, and particularly to the inhabitants of the village Maree de Mont. These peasants have lived in that district from times immemorial, and we thus find in this little French district and village some of the direct lineal descendants of the Atlanteans who lived in that part of the Continent opposite France. To cut the story as short as possible, it is stated that the Mayan eagle-nose in La Vendée and throughout Brittany is definitely established by the anthropologists. So here we have another link between Mexico and Europe, via Atlantis. And furthermore, the Breton language bears a resemblance only to Gaelic, remaining isolated from other European languages, so that when we hear a Breton peasant speaking, or a Scots Highlander, we may hear an echo of at least one of the languages of Atlantis! And the same may apply to the Irish language, and the Welsh, and, in fact, we have no doubts on this point.
One can never hope to get at the truth of such things if one listens to but one person or consults one book, let alone the various modern 'experts' who tell us Atlantis never existed at all! Rather, it is only by taking many, many circumstances and proofs into consideration, by means of which we can construct a more or less reliable whole, as we are trying to do in this investigation, that we stand any chance of arriving at the truth about Atlantis and its legacy. Thus, we must consult various discoveries in many different fields, such as zoology, botany, oceanography, astronomy and many other aids to reflection that will lead to a definite and true conclusion.
The marvels of Malta and the Mediterranean
Whereas the 'strangers' who arrived in the Americas we shall discuss later on arrived there from the East, other 'strangers' also came from the West to Spain and the rest of Europe, and parts of Africa, etc. Were these colonists responsible for the so-called 'cart-tracks' of Malta? We have said in our previous articles that Atlantean constructions were often on a gigantic scale; and if we look at those deep ruts in Malta, which are over six feet apart and run in grooves, almost like tramlines, but cut deep into the grey rock, with proper junctions between them, they look for all the world as if some huge vehicle made use of them on its mysterious errands. The wheels using these tracks must have been enormous, as were the vehicles themselves, but no one can tell how they were propelled, for in between the lines there is no sign of wear and tear. If animals were used to drag these carts—assuming they were carts, which we do not know—then we should expect to find some evidence of their footmarks, though if men pulled them forward, such marks might be absent, the men going barefoot or wearing sandals. The Maltese ruts appear at various levels, and they are visible beneath the sea too, as recent surveys have shown, even appearing by the foot of cliffs some 400 feet high! How did they reach the bed of the ocean? Or has the bed sunk since they were in use, or the land risen? No one knows, and we are not going to speculate! The ruts do not point to Africa either, and they lead in no particular direction.
The mysterious cart tracks found on Malta
Also in Malta we find the great temple, storehouse, burial ground and prison known as the Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni, first discovered by 'accident' in 1902, when workers cutting cisterns for a new housing development broke through its roof. The full extent of this vast structure has still not been fully explored, nor is it known who built it and when, though it is thought it was in use as early as 4,000 B.C. The Hypogeum consists of three superimposed levels hewn into soft limestone, with its halls and chambers interconnected through a labyrinthine series of steps, lintels and doorways, so that anyone who enters them without a guide is in danger of being lost for ever. There are the usual pits and traps with drops of seven foot or more, and the whole stupendous construction is full of secrets which have yet to be unravelled. There are to be found most cunningly concealed acoustic devices as well, and in one instance there is a small hole about halfway up a wall through which a thunderous voice would resound, expressive of the wrath of God, and an oracle would give warnings and utter grave prophecies. This can be done if anyone speaks in a deep tone of voice through that little hole, and then all the caves resound with a mighty thunder; so we may imagine the awe of the ignorant people when the priest addressed them thus for the good of their souls, and the well-being of the lords of the temple! Were these builders and constructors of the Hypogeum and of the ruts Atlanteans? We do not know, but it is possible.
The Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni in Malta
Did the Atlanteans, or their descendants, build the Colossus of Rhodes too? Possibly, and that statue was again on a vast scale, so great in fact that after it was destroyed by an earthquake it lay for centuries by the harbour of Rhodes, until a Syrian Jew bought the remains which it took 900 camels to remove, and that was in the eighth century of our era. How did the ancients move single stones weighing about a hundred tons each? Can this be done today, with all our vaunted progress? The temple of Baal in Baalbek, now in modern Lebanon, was built on an even more massive scale. No one knows who built it or when, and the remains of this enormous temple, which can still be seen today, is constructed of the largest worked blocks of stone ever found anywhere on earth. Some measure 70 feet long by 14 feet wide and high, and have been estimated to weigh over 1,500 tons! They came from a quarry about 500 yards away, but what was used to move them that distance, or how the soft soil could bear their enormous weight in transit remains a mystery.
One of the massive stones used in the construction of Baalbek!
The Cretan hieroglyphs might probably reveal many secrets to us, but no one can read them as yet. And so the world is filled with unexplained wonders. James Churchward, whose books we recommend elsewhere on our website, tells us in The Children of Mu, how he discovered that when in 1873 German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated the ruins of Troy at Hissarlik, he found in the second city the famous treasures of Priam, amongst which there was a peculiar bronze vase of great size. And in the vase were several articles of a peculiar metal, and the bronze ones had one with the following engraving in Phoenician hieroglyphics on it, which reads: "From the King Chronos of Atlantis." On the Lion Gate, Mycenae, in Crete, there is, or was, the following inscription, also discovered by Schliemann and transcribed by him: "The Egyptians descended from Misor. Misor was the child of Thoth, the god of history. Thoth was the emigrated son of a priest of Atlantis, who, having fallen in love with a daughter of King Chronos, escaped, and after many wanderings landed in Egypt. He built the first temple at Sais and there taught the wisdom of his native land." No further comment is needed here, unless we wish to take the attitude that all the ancients were liars and cheats, which is hard to believe, nor were they given to making wild and fantastic statements. This is just one example of what we may read in this remarkable book of Churchward's.
Atlantis and the Americas
Turning now to America, we hear reports of olden times in which 'strangers' arrived from the East, from 'The Land of the Rising Sun'. The legends of the Maya tell us that a divine man, wearing a white robe, and having a beard, arrived at the Anahuac uplands from the land called 'Tlapallan', and that he later became the principal deity of the Toltecs, and his name, Quetzalcoatl, always signifies 'The feathered Serpent'. When he died he is said to have gone to heaven and was transformed into the Morning Star.
Here we have either another coloniser, or a fugitive from Atlantis after the great disaster, or at least after one of these disasters which befell Atlantis. Space forbids us from going into too much detail about the work done in the Americas by Quetzalcoatl, and by many other colonisers who came before or after him to the Mexican shores. But Quetzalcoatl was infinitely kind-hearted, abhorred every kind of violence, and would on no account listen to any recitals of war. He introduced into Mexico a new and better social order, taught the natives many useful arts and trades and improved their manners in many ways, making them more gentle and forbearing than was their wont before he arrived. In other words, he was a highly civilised person in the best and highest meaning of the word, and could only have come from a land in the East, where such a high state of civilisation existed; in other words he must have come from Atlantis, for where else did such a civilisation exist at that time? We have no records of it.
When we study the traditions and legends of the Central and South American Indians, the first thing that strikes us is that their civilisation came from the East. Thus, when Quetzalcoatl is referred to, we learn not only that he came from the East, but that he came from the fabulous Hue Hue Tlapallan. From Tlapallan he came to Tula, and became the patron god and high-priest of the ancestors of the Toltecs. He is described as being a white man, strongly formed in body with a broad forehead, large eyes, and a flowing beard. When he arrived he wore a mitre on his head, and was dressed in a long white robe reaching to his feet, and this robe was covered with red crosses. Here we have a perfect description of a High-priest of the Druids, and we realise this still more when we learn that in his hand he held a sickle!
His habits were ascetic, he never married, was most chaste and pure in life, and is said to have endured penance in a neighbouring mountain (how suggestive this is of the 'mountain' to which Jesus and other great Masters retired to find Peace and inspiration!). He did not do penance for himself, but on behalf of others, who had greatly sinned, and this penance was also a warning to others. He condemned sacrifices (meaning blood sacrifices), except the offering of flowers and fruits, and was known as the God of Peace. Again we see portrayed the true high caste Druid, the real Druid, that is, and not the abortions which were known in later times in Europe as Druids, after the pure philosophy of Druidism had been polluted and died. When he was addressed upon the subject of war, he stopped his ears with his fingers, and would on no account listen to it. How significant this is, and how it points to the real cause or causes of the destruction of Atlantis, on account of the wickedness prevailing there. Quetzalcoatl imported into America the arts of gem cutting and metal casting; he taught the natives the use of letters and constructed the Mexican calendar. Afterwards he is said to have departed again to the East whence he came in the first place; "he sailed away to the East", embarking in a canoe of serpent skins.
Another Wise Man who came to America from the East according to a Brazilian legend was Samé. He had power over the elements and tempests; the trees of the forest would recede to make room for him; meaning that he caused trees to be cut down. The animals used to crouch before him; which means that he either introduced domestic animals, or caused certain wild ones to be domesticated. The lakes and rivers became solid for him; in other words he caused bridges to be built, and he taught the use of agriculture and magic. Almost the same story as that of the people who came to Egypt many thousands of years ago, teaching the natives, or showing them, all these things. He too had a white beard, and was a Son of the Sun, just as the Pharaoh was a Son of the Sun in Egypt, and the Druidic High Priest was such a being.
There are reports of other strangers arriving in America from the same direction, and we hear of Manco Capac and his sister Mama-Oello, who was also his wife, and who seized power and founded a great dynasty, the first one of which began about 1300 B.C. Manco Capac and his wife must have come from one of the remaining parts of Atlantis, and not from the mainland, if the date is correct here. The cult of the Sun, in both its inner and outer significance is also known on both sides of the Atlantic in the earliest times, showing a further, and very important link. All the great strangers who arrived in South America founded hierarchies of priests, and established religions, arts, trades, and new customs of great beauty and perfection, just as happened in Egypt and in Britain and other places. And though these rites and symbolisms may seem to vary, the inner meanings are ever the same, if one knows what these inner meanings are.
Whereas in South America we may behold the ruins of mighty cities and great pyramids, built by the descendants of the Atlanteans, as they built them in Egypt, in Southern Spain we find remains, deeply buried at times, of architectural works of utility, such as harbours, mines, viaducts, etc. But, whatever we find, the dimensions are nearly always colossal and most impressive in every way. What great artists there must have been in Atlantis, men with vision as well as practical knowledge; wise men, great rulers, and how wonderful must have been their knowledge of Arcane and hidden Wisdom.
You may be asking at this point why we do not have more precise reports of this great civilisation, but must rely upon the remains we find spread everywhere in Europe, near Asia, Egypt and America? The answer is that at the time of Atlantis the rest of the world was to a large extent in a state of abject savagery, without any men capable of making records of that which existed in that vast continent, provided any of them ever got there at all. And everything in Atlantis itself was suddenly destroyed, and nothing saved, except the wisdom of a few who fled to East and West and commenced new civilisations. These had probably no time, nor opportunity, to make records of the things that mattered at home, and probably they had no materials to hand on which to inscribe the things they knew; or else some records were made, but lost in the many thousands of years that passed since the first or even the final debacle.
The Maya, Quiché and other peoples of America
Yet, in spite of the many disasters that befell Atlantis, its legacy lives on and legends persist containing many germs of its history. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in America, they were amazed by the high level of culture of the Chibchas, an Indian tribe living in what is now Colombia which produced most artistic copper and gold work, carved magnificent bas-reliefs in stone, weaved elegant clothes and decorated them with fine paintings, possessed a monetary system based on massive gold coins, and a calendar. The Chibchas divided the year of 365 days into 12 months, and the day of the spring-equinox was their national feast. Their feasts and ceremonies resembled those of the Egyptian Pharaohs and ancient Hindu rulers. Legislation was severe and luxury was pursued as a crime, and cowards and traitors condemned to an infamous death. All the usual European ideographs and symbols were known to them, even to the swastika, and this applies to Asiatic and African symbols and signs as well. This all points to a common origin which can only have been Atlantis.
And then there are the vast cities and magnificent temples in the jungles of Brazil, for instance; who built all these miracles? Native Indians? No; there is a greater civilisation behind all these things, and it seems that when Atlantis disappeared and the people fled all over the nearby globe, they built great mounds when they were unable to erect vast temples such as they were used to in Atlantis itself.
Read the records you can find in many books on pre-historic nations and tribes; there are so many such to be had, and we recommend especially those printed during the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th, for they are full of interesting pictures as a rule, and worth reading. You will find hints on the life of Atlantis, and other ancient and now forgotten peoples in all such books, and with the knowledge you have acquired from our articles, you will be able to interpret these things much better than any scientist.
The Quichés of Guatemala possess a famous book known as the Codex Popol Vuh, which means 'A Bouquet of Leaves'. In it we find a complete description of at least a section of Atlantis, which was, according to the book, a veritable Paradise on Earth. The book also tells us that the descendants of the Atlanteans, then living in Guatemala, went to visit the land of their Sires, which was Atlantis of course, which lay to the East of America, and which they describe as a true Paradise in every sense, where both whites and negroes lived together in peace like brothers and spoke the same language.
There are still some white-skinned Indians living today in Venezuela, and these are called Paria, and dwelt some years ago in a village called Atlan, being situated in the virgin forests between the Apure and the Orinoco rivers, but are now almost extinct. They knew of a great catastrophe which destroyed their original home, a vast island in the eastern ocean (Atlantic Ocean), where lived a most prosperous and wise race. The Indians assert too that some of the Islanders escaped from the destruction that fell upon their island, and reached Venezuela, where they settled. In the Venezuelan forests are to be found many monoliths covered with hieroglyphs and strange carvings, as the explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) describes in his books.
Among these hieroglyphs and symbols is a version of the Tau in the form of a two-branched Tree of Life, worshipped by a white-skinned man and a black one, shown at left. This Tau is found in all ancient civilisations, from the Hindus, Chaldeans, Incas, Chinese, Quiches, and so on to the Egyptians. We can see one of these Maya vignettes with the Tau, or T–a–u, as it was pronounced, and still is in Polynesia, in the British Museum and in Churchward's book The Lost Continent of Mu. It comes direct from Atlantis, where it was first constructed, though it may have taken various forms, but always having the same meaning, that of the Tree of Life in some aspect or another. It is originally a picture of the Southern Cross, which once upon a time appeared in the shape of a true cross; and when it was seen in a certain angle in Atlantis, it meant that the life-giving rains were on the way, renewing all nature, making the seeds to spring up in the ground and the drooping foliage to be revived, and flowers and fruit to come forth again.
Very many symbols of the Atlanteans can be found in South America as well as in Egypt and other ancient lands. The most interesting is the development of the simple cross of four equal stems, which takes on various forms as it develops, has a circle placed around it, breaks into four, becomes a winged circle, and finally takes on the various forms of the feathered circle of the ancient Egyptians, the Guatemalan, the Naacal, Assyrian, Persian and Greek. But the oldest known winged circle was discovered by William Niven (1850-1937), an American archaeologist and mining engineer, in 1921, in San Miguel Amantla, near Haluepantla, nineteen miles from the national palace in Mexico City. We reproduce it above, exactly as it appears on page 168 of Churchward's book, The Lost Continent of Mu; a most remarkable figuration indeed. This must be pure Atlantean, and it may well represent a plan of one of their main temples. You can read more about the American legacy of Atlantis and other interesting facts in the final part of this investigation.
© Copyright occult-mysteries.org. Article added 24 February 2019. Updated 11 February 2024.