According to many, many sources from diversified fields, the Atlantean
corpus of knowledge was preserved, albeit in a scattered form, by its
survivors. The only historical account of Atlantis that ever made its way
into the public was from the Greek philosopher Plato, and modern researchers
still draw off of his writings when investigating the subject. According to
Plato’s account,
Atlantis disappeared in a sudden cataclysm that caused it
to sink beneath the sea.
There were a precious few who became aware that
this was going to happen before it actually did, and they were able to
evacuate the island continent before the event itself occurred. They
migrated to different areas throughout Europe, Africa and Asia as well as
the Americas, most notably within the Mesoamerican region of the Yucatan.
According to the legends as preserved by Plato and others in secret, the
majority of the entire world was not civilized during the time of Atlantis.
The secluded island of Atlantis itself, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on
all sides, was far more advanced than many of the indigenous cultures that
were already in existence in other parts of the world. At that time, not
everyone was at the same level of development by any means, and the legends
say that Atlantis had just begun a large-scale colonization / civilization
program for the outside world when they collapsed.
The Atlantean cataclysm completely submerged all the remnants of their once
great island, and in many cases the survivors of this disaster found
themselves thrust into situations with primitive peoples who could barely
even begin to fathom the civilization that they had come from. And in some
of these cases, if they were to begin openly speaking about their knowledge,
they would have been killed very quickly out of fear. Therefore, it appears
that the majority of survivors from Atlantis had to pass down their
traditional knowledge in conditions of the utmost secrecy, knowing that
their conflicting religious and scientific beliefs could quickly turn them
into dinner for a tribe of wandering cannibals if they weren’t careful.
The overarching term that was given for the secret knowledge from the lost
civilization of Atlantis, (other than "The Tradition,") was "The Mysteries."
In most cases, the secrecy of the Mysteries was kept so tightly that
rigorous initiations were demanded of anyone who either chose or was invited
to participate. And furthermore, to insure their own survival the inheritors
of the Atlantean legacy would often punish those who betrayed the secrets
with death.
They believed that it was better to sacrifice one traitor than
to lose everyone in an ambush soon afterwards - and this was a very real
possibility at that time. One can certainly imagine that many bands of
survivors who did not either keep strict secrecy or were not as careful or
dramatic as an Oannes or Viracocha were simply wiped out, and that perhaps
this common link among recognized historical figures of the Mysteries was
the very thing that had preserved their knowledge through time.
According to numerous pieces of evidence that we will continue discussing as
we progress, the knowledge of the Mysteries was almost totally wiped out
more than once due to these oppressive conditions in uncivilized lands, but
the underlying power of the information was so strong that great men would
always come along and completely reintegrate all of the fragmented pieces.
This happened in Greece with Thales, Pythagoras and
Plato touring the
African / Eurasian continents and compiling lost ancient data, and much more
recently it was done again by Francis Bacon, a highly-educated royal
contemporary of the Elizabethan era who had access to ancient records in
the
Vatican and elsewhere. Bacon’s efforts to resuscitate the Mysteries were
what directly fathered the modern-day Masonic Order, and he and
Pythagoras
are said by Manly Hall (discussed below) to be the single two most important
figures in Masonry today.
The Masonic Order is often lambasted by modern ’conspiracy theorists’ as an
easy target due to its vows of secrecy and demonstrably incredible worldwide
power in our modern civilization. This will be discussed in much more detail
towards the end of this book. As just one of hundreds of examples, almost
every person who signed the Declaration of Independence was a Mason, as well
as a high number of astronauts and US Presidents. Many authors have gone far
out of their way to demonstrate that the majority of high-level corporate
executives, military officials and top government politicians all have
connections to Masonry, and updated lists of these people (which may or may
not be entirely accurate) are easily found through searching the Internet.
Only those who had penetrated through the highest "degrees" of Freemasonry
had any idea about what the Mysteries really were. The lower degrees,
especially the first three "Blue Degrees," were designed to foster a large
body of loyal and unified members for the group, thus enhancing Masonic
power and influence without compromising any real knowledge or secrets.
Those who would receive the deepest knowledge could be carefully observed
over a long period of time, and handpicked slowly and carefully through
higher degrees in a very controlled fashion. Any sign of lack of integrity,
doubt or distrust on behalf of the initiate would permanently freeze his
progress, insuring that he would never advance any further. (And yes, only
men can join the Freemasons. The corresponding, much less popular women’s
group is called Eastern Star.)
And so, even if certain elements of the modern Masonic Order have become
quite confused and power-hungry, their original secret information is very
important to us. Many researchers agree that the books of Manly Palmer Hall,
a 33rd-degree Masonic initiate, (the highest publicly acknowledged degree,)
are the ultimate source available for learning about the real secrets that
are preserved by these modern inheritors of the Mysteries.
The book
The
Secret Teachings of All Ages
is inarguably Hall’s finest accomplishment -
written as a literal encyclopedia of all the great truths that he or any
other members of these societies were willing to reveal. And within that
subset, Hall has quite a lot to say. Once we begin putting in all the other
pieces, we will see that Hall’s information is far more than adequate for
recombining the true picture of the Atlantean Mysteries. Indeed, one might
argue that Hall’s works are truly one-of-a-kind, as there are but precious
few examples of the insiders from the Secret Brotherhoods revealing this
much within one sole document available to the public.
Hall’s book begins, paradoxically enough, with an enormous and perhaps even
boring discussion of philosophers, from Greek to Roman right up through the
present, and their widely contradictory ideas. In this discussion, we can
clearly see how the unified knowledge of the Mysteries had already become
widely dispersed, and everyone had their own theories based on what little
they knew - and yet underneath it all, a common thread could be perceived.
Certain philosophers such as Pythagoras actively sought to eliminate this
problem by traveling far and wide to collect this scattered secret
information from other areas.
By the end of the chapter, the reader is
practically exhausted with the huge body of philosophical information that
was presented, and at this point Hall comes clean with the hidden Masonic
knowledge that he is in contact with, regarding the true secret origin of
all philosophy. In this excerpt, he also touches upon the all-important
concept of symbolism being used to convey information and hide truth from
the uninitiated:
Having thus traced the more or less sequential development of philosophic
speculation from Thales to James and Bergson, it is now in order to direct
the reader’s attention to the elements leading to and the circumstances
attendant upon the genesis of philosophic thinking. Although the Hellenes
proved themselves peculiarly responsive to the disciplines of philosophy,
this science of sciences should not he considered indigenous to them.
"Although some of the Grecians," writes Thomas Stanley, "have challenged to
their nation the original of philosophy, yet the more learned of them have
acknowledged it [to be] derived from the East."
The magnificent institutions
of Hindu, Chaldean (Sumerian), and Egyptian learning must he recognized as
the actual source of Greek wisdom. The last was patterned after the shadow
cast by the sanctuaries of Ellora, Ur, and Memphis upon the thought
substance of a primitive people. Thales, Pythagoras, and Plato in their
philosophic wanderings contacted many distant cults and brought back the
lore of Egypt and the inscrutable Orient.
From indisputable facts such as these it is evident that philosophy emerged
from the religious Mysteries of antiquity, not being separated from religion
until after the decay of the Mysteries. He who would fathom the depths of
philosophic thought must familiarize himself with the teachings of those
initiated priests designated as the first custodians of divine revelation.
The Mysteries claimed to be the guardians of a transcendental knowledge so
profound as to be incomprehensible save to the most exalted intellect and so
potent as to be revealed with safety only to those in whom personal ambition
was dead and who had consecrated their lives to the unselfish service of
humanity. Both the dignity of these sacred institutions and the validity of
their claim to possession of Universal Wisdom are attested by the most
illustrious philosophers of antiquity, who were themselves initiated into
the profundities of the secret doctrine and who bore witness to its
efficacy.
The question may legitimately be propounded: If these ancient mystical
institutions were of such "great pith and moment," why is so little
information now available concerning them and the arcana they claimed to
possess? The answer is simple enough:
The Mysteries were secret societies,
binding their initiates to inviolable secrecy, and avenging with death the
betrayal of their sacred trusts. Although these schools were the true
inspiration of the various doctrines promulgated by the ancient
philosophers, the fountainhead of those doctrines was never revealed to the
profane. Furthermore, in the lapse of time the teachings came so
inextricably linked with the names of disseminators that the actual but
recondite source - the Mysteries - came to be wholly ignored.
Symbolism is the language of the Mysteries; in it is the language not only
of mysticism and philosophy but of all Nature, for every law and power
active in universal procedure is manifested to the limited sense perceptions
of man through the medium of symbol. Every form existing in the diversified
sphere of being is symbolic of the divine activity by which it is produced.
By symbols men have ever sought to communicate to each other those thoughts
which transcend the limitations of language.
Rejecting man-conceived
dialects as inadequate and unworthy to perpetuate divine ideas, the
Mysteries thus chose symbolism as a far more ingenious and ideal method of
preserving their transcendental knowledge. In a single figure a symbol may
both reveal and conceal, for to the wise the subject of the symbol is
obvious, while to the ignorant the figure remains inscrutable. He who seeks
to unveil the secret doctrine of antiquity must search for that doctrine not
upon the open pages of books which might fall into the hands of the unworthy
but in the place where it was originally concealed.
Far-sighted were the initiates of antiquity. They realized that nations come
and go, that empires fall, and that the golden ages of art, science, and
idealism are succeeded by the dark ages of superstition. With the needs of
posterity foremost in mind, the sages of old went to inconceivable extremes
to make certain that their knowledge should be preserved. They engraved it
upon the face of mountains and concealed it with the measurements of
colossal images, each of which was a geometric marvel.
Their knowledge of
chemistry and mathematics they hid within mythologies which the ignorant
would perpetuate, or in the spans and arches of their temples which time has
not entirely obliterated. They wrote in characters that neither the
vandalism of men nor the ruthlessness of the elements could completely
efface. Today men gaze with awe and reverence upon the mighty Memnons
(Pyramids) standing alone on the sands of Egypt, or upon the strange
terraced pyramids of Palanque. Mute testimonies these are of the lost arts
and sciences of antiquity; and concealed this wisdom must remain until this
race has learned to read the universal language - SYMBOLISM.
The book to which this is the introduction is dedicated to proposition that
concealed within the emblematic figures, allegories and rituals of the
ancients is a secret doctrine concerning the inner mysteries of life; which
doctrine has been preserved in toto among a small band of initiated minds
since the beginning of the world. Departing, these illumined philosophers
left their formulae that others, too, might attain to understanding. But,
lest these secret processes fall into uncultured hands and be perverted, the
Great Arcanum was always concealed in symbol or allegory; and those who can
today discover its lost keys may open with them a treasure house of
philosophic, scientific, and religious truths.
Hall’s discussion of symbolism is indeed a very important component of this
book, as we will indeed review how ancient worldwide mythologies as well as
mysterious structures such as
the Pyramids contained an incredible wealth of
knowledge to those who were properly aware of this language. Indeed, the
more we explore Higher Consciousness in ourselves and in ancient wisdom, the
more we must contend with the acceptance and understanding of symbolism. By
learning to decipher and actively utilize this language, we can indeed
reconstruct the scientific and spiritual knowledge of Atlantis.
Symbolism
and mathematics transcend all spoken languages, working directly in the mass
collective subconscious of humanity. As one example, the Native American
beliefs are becoming more and more widely accepted, and many different
aspects of Nature including the animals are used to convey definite,
commonly recognized information. The works of the brilliant genius Joseph
Campbell go into exquisite detail regarding the underlying symbolic
"archetypes" that emerge in different forms worldwide, ostensibly
originating from the "collective unconscious" of humanity as defined by the
famous psychologist Carl Jung.
The simplest way to discover the active, contemporary use of this universal
language is to study your dreams, wherein symbol is used on a nightly basis
to convey vitally important information for your personal growth. The
standard rule of any dreamwork is that every character, environment,
situation and event represents yourself - and the real work comes in seeing
what current issues and aspects of yourself the dreams are alerting you to.
The knowledge of this symbolic dream process as a tool for spiritual
enlightenment is becoming very widespread in our modern culture, much more
so than in Hall’s time of the early 20th century. This author has worked
with his dreams throughout his entire life and actively journalized them
throughout the last eight years, and his deep-trance workings, contained on
this website, also use symbolism quite actively in the spoken word.
It is important to point out here that the symbolism only thinly conceals
very real scientific information, and thus our arguments will not come from
a place of making subjectively biased interpretations of metaphorical
stories. Numbers in ancient mythologies and structures can be very directly,
mathematically related to the latest discoveries that we are making about
our Universe, as we shall see in future chapters. Symbolism simply gives
people an opportunity to look at real information and choose not to see its
hidden secrets, passing it off as a "myth" or a "giant tomb"
in the case of
the Pyramids.
At this point we continue to remind ourselves that the lost
culture of Atlantis seeded this unique and powerful information throughout
the world, and that high-level Masons like Hall can help us to understand
exactly what this secret information really was. And as we continue further
along in Hall’s book, we come upon the chapter "Atlantis and the Gods of
Antiquity," where the core idea of humanity’s hidden Atlantean past is
expounded upon further:
"The history of Atlantis," writes
Ignatius Donnelly, "is the key of the
Greek mythology. There can be no question that these gods of Greece were
human beings. The tendency to attach divine attributes to great earthly
rulers is one deeply implanted in human nature. (See
Atlantis.)
…The
Garden of Eden from which humanity was driven by a flaming sword is
perhaps an allusion to the earthly paradise supposedly located west of the
Pillars of Hercules and destroyed by volcanic cataclysms.
The Deluge legend
may be traced also to the Atlantean inundation, during which a "world" was
destroyed by water.
Was the religious, philosophic, and scientific knowledge possessed by the
priestcrafts of antiquity secured from Atlantis, whose submergence
obliterated every vestige of its part in the drama of world progress? Atlantean sun worship has been perpetuated in the ritualism and
ceremonialism of both Christianity and pagandom. Both the cross and the
serpent were Atlantean emblems of divine wisdom…
The mythologies of many nations contain accounts of gods who "came out of
the sea." Certain shamans among the American Indians tell of holy men
dressed in birds’ feathers and wampum who rose out of the blue waters and
instructed them in the arts and crafts. Among the legends of the Chaledans
(Sumerians) is that of Oannes, a partly amphibious creature who came out of
the sea and taught the savage peoples along the shore to read and write,
till the soil, cultivate herbs for healing, study the stars, establish
rational forms of government, and become conversant with the sacred
Mysteries.
Among the Mayas, Quetzalcoatl, the Savior-God (whom some
Christians believe to have been St. Thomas), issued from the waters and,
after instructing the people in the essentials of civilization, rode out to
sea on a magic raft of serpents to escape the wrath of the fierce god of the
Fiery Mirror, Tezcatlipoca.
[Note: Again, with references to a "magic raft" and a "Fiery Mirror" we can
see a clear connection to the more magnificent versions of the
vimana
that
we had discussed above.]
May it not have been that these demigods of a fabulous age who,
Esdras-like,
came out of the sea were Atlantean priests? All that primitive man
remembered of the Atlanteans was the glory of their golden ornaments, the
transcendency of their wisdom, and the sanctity of their symbols - the cross
and the serpent. That they came in ships was soon forgotten, for untutored
minds considered even boats as supernatural. Wherever the Atlanteans
proselyted they erected pyramids and temples patterned after the great
sanctuary in the [Atlantean] City of the Golden Gates. Such is the origin of
the pyramids of Egypt, Mexico, and Central America.
The mounds in Normandy
and Britain, as well as those of the American Indians, are remnants of a
similar culture. In the midst of the Atlantean program of world colonization
and conversion, the cataclysms which sank Atlantis began. The Initiate-Priests of the Sacred Feather who promised to come back to their
missionary settlements never returned; and after the lapse of centuries
tradition preserved only a fantastic account of gods who came from a place
where the sea now is…
From the Atlanteans the world has received not only the
heritage of arts and
crafts, philosophies and sciences, ethics and religions, but also the
heritage of hate, strife, and perversion. The Atlanteans instigated the
first war; and it has been said that all subsequent wars were fought in a
fruitless effort to justify the first one and right the wrong which it
caused. Before Atlantis sank, its spiritually illumined Initiates, who
realized that their land was doomed because it had departed from the Path of
Light, withdrew from the ill-fated continent.
Carrying with them the sacred
and secret doctrine, these Atlanteans established themselves in Egypt, where
they became its first "divine" rulers. Nearly all the great cosmologic myths
forming the foundation of the various sacred books of the world are based
upon the Atlantean Mystery rituals.
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