Lemuria: The Land Before Atlantis

Just over one hundred years ago, the visionary William Scott-Elliott drew a map of the world. But the unfamiliar continents on Scott-Elliott's map looked very different from those found on our own maps. What he had drawn were the mystic coastlines of Lemuria. But what was Lemuria, and where had the idea come from? 

Earlier in the 19th century society was abuzz with the then-revelutionary ideas of Charles Darwin, and when it was noted that Madagascan lemurs were as widespread as Africa and India, a reason had to be found for how they crossed the oceans. Nowadays we know that the great drift of the continents can provide much of the explanation, but with no other evidence available, the 19th century provided its own answer: there must have been a huge landmass between the oceans which later sank beneath the waves. An English zoologist suggested a name for this ill-fated land: Lemuria, after the lemurs.

But what had begun as a scientifically motivated idea drifted into other very different waters. The Russian occultist Madame Blavatsky took up the idea of the lost land, and her writings (most of which were claimed to have been written in trance) tell of seven mysterious 'root races' which existed before humans as we know them today. Not all of these root races were material beings, and the third were the Lemurians, whom she described as 'giant, ape-like beings', who had no written language, but who could communicate telepathically. After the destruction of Lemuria it was the turn of Atlantis, and as the fourth root race was the first to have material bodies, the Lemurians presumably were somewhere between the first two (named the astral and etheric) and the material Atlanteans, so presumably were able to slip between both the ethereal and the material worlds.

After Madame Blavatsky, William Scott-Elliott stepped onto the stage to carry the idea forward, but the story of Lemuria had yet another twist. In 1932 a Los Angeles reporter visiting the Mount Shasta region in northern California saw unexplained lights swirling around the mountain (my reconstruction above). A local told him that these strange lights were 'Lemurians holding ceremonials', and so the whole aura of Mount Shasta being the last refuge for these semi-visible beings took hold, and was further enhanced by fictional works that cast the location and its mysterious inhabitants as a refuge for a priestly community charged with guarding ancient wisdom.

Hawkwood

POSTSCRIPT: When I began writing this post, I had no idea that it might contain a possible connection with the Bigfoot phenomenon. But one thing is clear: at the time that she was writing (or being 'dictated' to?), Blavatsky could have had no knowledge of the later Bigfoot reports. A mysterious race of 'giant, ape-like beings', able to communicate telepathically and perhaps dematerialise at will? Several witnesses report inexplicable feelings that a sighted Bigfoot creature had gotten 'into their mind'. One witness, a veteran of several encounters with a specific individual, even described the sensation as a 'mind grab' - as unpleasant as it was unwelcome. And the idea that Bigfoot can slip in and out of our material world is also supported by the experiences of several witnesses. More questions than answers - but maybe on my first image for this post, instead of painting a mystic 'Mount Shasta' guardian being, it would have been more appropriate - and closer to Blavatsky's own description - had I shown Bigfoot! And curiously enough, northern California is replete with reports of the Bigfoot phenomenon.

Sources:

Jennifer Westwood: 'Lemuria: The Elusive Continent', in The Atlas of Mysterious Places

B. Ann Slate and Alan Berry: 'Bigfoot'. Whether you give credence to the phenomenon or not, Slate and Berry's book, as unputdownable as any thriller and at times genuinely chilling, makes for compelling reading. I first read it back in the '70's, and am gratified to learn from recent reviews that it is now regarded as a classic in its field. Alan Berry was the first researcher to record purported Bigfoot vocalizations. When on his website I listened to one of them with my headphones innocently turned to max volume, I so shocked that I involuntarily tore off my headset. Whatever made those sounds, it certainly wasn't mere human mimicry. And to forestall the obvious next question: no, it sure wasn't a bear either! An original edition is now worth around $70.oo, but reprints should still be available.

Hawkwood and Divine Retribution

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

Stern words indeed. These are almost the very last words spoken in the book of Revelation, and therefore in the Bible itself. They read like a sort of 1st century notice of copyright, reinforced with the threat of terrible divine retribution. And they apply to me.

For awhile now I have been working on a video which is my own interpretation of the book of Revelation, and in the course of creating that video I have indeed been 'adding unto' and 'taking away from' the words which are written there. I have shaped and changed the visions of John of Patmos to suit my own creative ends, following wherever my own vision of things led me.

This has included a necessary pushing beyond the limiting dualities of the scriptures (God=good, Devil=bad) to portray a perceived mystic connection between The Woman Clothed with the Sun, who in John's writings is presented as all that is virtuous, and the Whore of Babylon, who is portrayed as being vile beyond redemption - a connection so extreme that the description of mere heresy hardly covers it.

So am I holding my breath waiting for assorted plagues to strike me down, and for my impending banishment from the holy city to take effect? Hardly. It is an easy matter to start thinking along the lines of: 'if I do (or don't do) such-and-such, then bad things will happen to me', and the line between faith and fear-driven superstition can be crossed without our even being aware of it.

Hawkwood

My video REVELATIONS has since been uploaded to YouTube and can be viewed here:
REVELATIONS: The End of Time

Anthony of the Desert: Life as Fiction

"Not all true things are the truth" cautioned [1]Clement of Alexandria. He had in mind those writings which he considered to be heretical, but which are now perceived as orthodox. His very orthodox fellow Alexandrian, the bishop Athanasius, earned his own place in history by ordering the destruction of all texts which he personally considered fell outside what was right and proper for Christians to accept as The Truth.

History, as we know, is full of grand ironies. It was the fear of Athanasius' destructive edicts which led a group of unknown monks to remove over fifty volumes from their precious library in the nearby monastery and seal them in a large earthenware jar. The jar they then buried in the Egyptian desert sands. That jar would lay silent and undiscovered for the following sixteen centuries, its contents safely preserved within. When it was rediscovered in 1945 those contents would become known as the Gnostic gospels, and would at last give the writers of these early texts their own place in history. Some voices, it seems, are just not meant to be silenced.

The secrets which those recovered texts tell is a post on this blog for another time. What is relevant here is another claim to fame by Athanasius (the engraving, below): as the author of what became a hugely popular biography of Saint Anthony - Anthony of the Desert, as he became known. One Christian history [2]website which I am currently viewing claims that Athanasius is "ranked, even today, among the greatest exponents of Christian doctrine". The article unsurprisingly fails to mention the bishop's destructive zeal, which went beyond the burning of books to include his annexing of the churches and monasteries where these books were accepted spiritual texts.

But in Athanasius' drive to silence any dissenting voices, the widely-popular Anthony (Albrecht Dürer's engraving, below) presented the bishop with a problem. Anthony's whole life had been an expression of all which the bishop disagreed with: an intensely personal quest for an experience of the divine, which was itself an expression of gnostic values which involved the sidelining of any hierarchical Church authority - including that of a bishop. Ah, what to do, then, about Anthony?

The canny bishop seems to have approached the problem of Anthony with the shrewdness of a spin doctor. Instead of attacking the popular visionary, and so risking disfavour among the populace, Athanasius decided to reinvent him. In the supposedly biographical 'Life of Anthony', the articulate and erudite saint is transformed into an illiterate and humble monk, who rejects the personal values which the real Anthony held, and whose life is the very paragon of all the doctrines which the bishop advocated. Athanasius even tacked on a wholly fictitious ending to his story, in which the saint bequeaths his humble hermit's cloak to the author as his worthy successor. Perhaps predictably, the so-called biography was a huge and influential success. More than that, it came to be viewed as a true account of the saint's life, and the effectiveness of Athanasius' rewriting of reality is seen even today in the catholic acceptance of this most gnostic of visionaries as one of their own.

It is only through the discovered letters, now accepted by scholars as being written by Anthony himself, that we know the true picture. And it seems that without any gainsaying documents, history - even someone's life - can be turned into a work of fiction.

Hawkwood

This post is complementary to my current post about Anthony of the Desert on my other blog, which portrays Anthony's visions. You are welcome to visit and read my post Temptations.



Notes:

[1] Clement would himself suffer the same fictionalizing process as Anthony: a Gnostic who was reinvented by the church as a pillar of Catholic orthodoxy - as also was Paul. In his own lifetime a Gnostic, Paul's writings were later amended to give them an orthodox bias, and several of his letters were forged by other hands to become the scriptural writings now in the New Testament. 'Saint Paul' is therefore also an invention of the Church of Rome.

  
[2] Athanasius: Pugnacious Defender of Orthodoxy


Sources:
Elaine Pagels: 'Revelations: Visions, Prophesy and Politics in the Book of Revelation'
Samuel Rubenson: 'The Letters of Anthony: Monasticism and the Making of a Saint'

The Happy Planet

Somewhere in the vastness of space there is a planet. On this planet (which is far from our own) there is no strife, no war, no civil unrest, no family feuds. The inhabitants go peaceably about their business, and all is blissful contentment. This state of being creates no apathetic boredom (as we on our own strife-torn world might imagine it would), because no other state is known to them. In our own earthly terms, the inhabitants of this happy planet are living in paradise and dining on milk and honey, and their times are a perpetual golden age.

This blissful existence has continued for generations, with nothing to disturb it. Then one day: catastrophe. Voices raised in anger are heard as two neighbours squabble over some petty difference of opinion. Shocking enough among such tranquillity. But worse is to follow. The next day a horrified couple discover a body in long grass beside a river bank, bloody and beaten: clearly the victim of a murder. In the days and weeks to come the traumatised inhabitants are drawn deeper into a scenario of escalating violence. What had begun as local disputes about whose property ended exactly where extends to whole territories, as communities vie for control of what up till then had been regarded as worthless tracts of unwanted land. Differences of belief (especially those which sanctify life) become reasons for massacre. Wars flare, creating misery and reasons for resentment for generations yet unborn. What has happened to this once-happy planet?

Back here on planet Earth, it's a politically popular wish expressed by Miss South Carolina (and almost every other aspiring beauty pageant queen). What is wished for? World peace. A final end to all the suffering and strife which so plagues our earthly existence. A simple desire that for once we would all just get along with each other, respect each others' beliefs, territory, property, whatever. And then, amazingly, it actually happens. Differences are resolved, theft becomes meaningless and redundant, war becomes obsolete. Peace prevails at last, and Miss South Carolina's expressed desire for a new and peaceful world becomes an astonishing and precious reality.

The universe keeps its own checks and balances. A star explodes in incandescent death, another star bursts into life. A planet of turmoil becomes a planet of peace, and another planet, far distant, whose existence up till then had known no strife is plunged into turmoil. Perhaps our strife-torn world has a greater cosmic value - even a function - beyond our own understandable longing for tranquillity. Be careful what you wish for, Miss South Carolina...

Hawkwood

Top image: Robert Duncanson: Land of the Lotos Eaters (detail), 19th century

Second image: Pieter Bruegel: The Triumph of Death (detail), 16th century

Third image: John Martin: The Plains of Heaven (detail), 19th century

Giordano Bruno's Infinite Space

Of the various charges of heresy which the Inquisition brought against Giordano Bruno, which included his claims that the consecrated host did not physically change into the body of Christ, and that the sun did not orbit around the earth, the heretical belief which his accusers seemed to find particularly shocking was his claim that space is infinite. It has been tempting in our own time to perceive Bruno as a vanguard hero courageously taking a stand against the repressive mindset of his age. But how true is this?

Excommunicated from his Dominican brotherhood, Bruno travelled through much of 16th-century Europe. Poet, writer, philosopher, lecturer, he was also an artist who produced what appear to our contemporary eyes to be timeless mystic mandalas for meditation - figures which Bruno considered to portray the spirit, the creative intellect, divine love, and other qualities (below). So it seems true enough to think of Bruno as being radically progressive for his time – because he was!

Today we can look at the wonders revealed to us by the Hubble orbiting telescope and see the realities which Bruno’s profound vision could only imagine. Instead of the nest of crystaline spheres orbiting the central earth which was then the prevailing view, Bruno gazed up at the stars and imagined worlds such as our own without number, each on its own journey through space, orbiting around its own parent star as our own earth journeys around the sun. More than this: according to Bruno many of these worlds harboured life, and new worlds were even now being born in the vast infinities of space. This is our own vision of things -  and this also was Bruno’s vision, unique for his time. No European mind before Bruno’s had thought of space as being infinite, or had thought of life existing anywhere other than on the earth – or of life being an ongoing process of creation. To 16th-century Europe, the act of creation – all creation – was something which had taken place ‘in the beginning’.

We now see our universe as being so strewn with other planets that even a conservative odds-against estimate gives us a figure of life in some form existing on some possible ten billion other worlds. Hubble even shows us so-called ‘star nurseries’ (above) – regions of space in which new stars can be seen forming, just as Bruno imagined them to be. Our contemporary science has endorsed all which Bruno claimed about our universe: that our earth is anything but the centre of all worlds, that space is teeming with other suns and planets, many of which must be home to life in some form – and that it is indeed incalculably vast. These are truths now commonly accepted and agreed upon, and our telescopes provide us with the hard evidence. But has all this been enough to redeem Bruno? 

Apparently not. 

As recently as 2000, Pope John Paul II was presented with an edict nullifying the charges against the philosopher Giordano Bruno. He refused to sign it, apparently considering Bruno’s heresy to be too extreme for the church to forgive. The charges brought by the church against Bruno stand to this day.

In February of the year 1600, after eight years of imprisonment by the Inquisition, Giordano Bruno was found guilty of heresy (the *bronze plaque above) and formally divested of his religious vows: a complex ritual of several hours of sustained humiliation, which included shaving his head to remove any traces of his friar’s tonsure – which would in any case by then have long vanished. He was then handed over to a civic bailiff, and following a further eight days of incarceration was set upon a donkey and taken to the place of execution in central Rome. Accounts mention his 'imprisoned tongue'. Clearly Bruno was gagged in some way, either by a leather strap or by a *metal spike being driven through his jaw. He was then stripped and bound to the stake. The pyre was then set to the torch. A crucifix was presented in front of him, but defiant at the last he averted his head. Shaved, naked, unable to cry out, Giordano Bruno burned. Following the burning his ashes were swept up and dumped in the Tiber.

Almost four centuries after his execution, the new Italian secular government, wishing to assert its independence from the papacy, commissioned the sculptor Ettore Ferrari to produce a statue of Giordano Bruno. It was planned to face the statue towards the morning sun, close to the site of Bruno’s execution. But as this in turn meant that the friar would have his back to the Vatican, the papacy objected that such a placement would be disrespectful. The acquiescent government duly turned the statue around, which is why the face of the hooded friar is now always in shadow. But with its brooding gaze now directed towards Saint Peter’s, it ironically also means that, centuries after his death, the statue continues to confront Bruno’s accusers.

Upon hearing his sentence, the Dominican philosopher is reported to have told his inquisitors that the sentence would be more fearful for them to pronounce against him than it would be for him to accept it. Five centuries on, his enduring words ring true.

Hawkwood

Sources:

‘Giordano Bruno: Philosopher/Heretic’, by Ingrid D. Rowland

‘Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition’, by Frances Yates

'The Pope and the Heretic: The True Story of Giordano Bruno, the Man Who Dared to Defy the Roman Inquisition', by Michael White.

*This plaque is on the base of the Bruno statue.

*Rowland's scholarly account leaves the uncertain choice open to question. White's book opts for the spike with bloody and sensational description - too sensational for me to be convinced of the author's veracity.