Ancient Civilizations: The Theories of Atlantis and Lemuria
Lemuria
The continent of Lemuria, though largely discounted by the theory of plate tectonics and the existence of other sunken continents still visible on the silty bottom of many oceans, lives on in people’s dreams. The Native American Indians have been said to be descendants of the Lemurians, as are certain tribes in Turkey, the Aboriginals and the population of Madagascar.
Believed to be located in either the Indian or Pacific oceans, according to Helena Petrovna Blavatsky the Lemurians are the third root race making them very ancient indeed, proceeded only by the ‘Ethereals’ and Hyperboreans, each laying claim to no living descendents today. Interestingly according to Madame Blavatsky, the fifth root race – the Aryans who do have descendants alive today is now one million years old.
Lemuria according to traditional theosophy began over 34 ½ million years ago, and they were dark skinned and a loving, simple race who co-existed peacefully with the animals around them. When their continent slowly began to sink as a result of so many volcanic eruptions across the continent, the Lemurians dispersed; colonizing the neighbouring East Indies, Southern India and Africa.
The evidence, despite the lack of proof on the floors of both the Indian and Pacific oceans, centralizes around the zoologist Philip Lutley Sclater and his findings after amassing the fauna of Madagascar, finding the similarities puzzling in that they belonged not only to Africa but to India as well. Sclater surmised that there must have been a land bridge, a lost land named Lemuria after the Lemurs endemic to Madagascar.
There are many other theories surrounding Lemuria including that they later became the Aryan race in India and invented Sanskrit, and that the Maoris of New Zealand arrived from a sinking island as well as the legends of Easter Island and the continent of ‘Hiva’ that sank between the waves and many people perished.
Lemuria or Mu is also said to be the home of dragons, and the time when we truly began to move away from our more animalistic and began to evolve much faster. Some theories (mostly eccentric ones belonging to Madame Blavatsky) also assert that Lemurians were giants who laid eggs before evolving to give birth to live young as mammals do.
Lemuria is often talked about nostalgically; could this have been the human races’ lost Eden? The garden that sunk beneath the waves and the last sight we had of our primitive but loving natures? Did Lemuria sink because of our wicked sins as Blavatsky put forward, or was it a rung on the inevitable spiral in history, a civilization that was wiped out as so many have been since in order to keep trying until we get things right?
Atlantis
“Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God’s gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences”. ~ Freeman Dyson
The fourth race; before the Aryans but after the Lemurians were said to be the Atlanteans, rising and giving birth to the Toltec and Mongolians races and spreading out into Africa, the Americas and all of the Europe that we know today. The Atlanteans in comparison to the Lemurians were much more advanced and God-like; beautifully intelligent and ambitious.
They worshiped the sun and advanced their technologies rapidly, much as we are doing today… there is even some links between the Atlanteans and extra terrestrials, some theorizing that this race arrived from the skies in the first place.
Atlantis in mainstream history originated in our ancient minds in Greece (‘Island of Atlas’ in ancient Greek) and was written about in Allegory by Plato as a superior civilization that had transcended his ideal of a state and had launched an attack on Athens. Athens, unlike any other nation, succeeded in fighting off the state and it wasn’t long before Atlantis fell out of favour with the Gods and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. Atlantis has also been linked to belonging to Poseidon, God of the sea and the Ancient Egyptians who apparently wrote about it in hieroglyphs.
Perhaps the association with Atlantis’ apocalyptic demise can be attributed to the continent’s association with Mayanism and the imaginations of European explorers and writers such as Sir Thomas Moore which led to the publication of such books as ‘Utopia’.
However, it is believed that the reasons that point the finger to Atlantis being a fiction are largely due to the racism surrounding these foreigners’ assumptions of the Indigenous people; that they can’t have built such magnificent structures with such a rich cultural background; no, another race must have been involved, and there the stories begin to blur.
Edgar Cayce, having tapped into the ‘Akashic Records’ when under trance channeled that many of the souls lost in Atlantis were returning and their collective consciousness was stirring through many youngsters reaching adolescence on the west coast of North America during the 60s.
Again as in the case of Lemuria, many say that the continent of Atlantis is an impossibility due to the lack of evidence on the ocean floor, but others state that, even within the geology of plate tectonics it is possible that a continent could get lost as they shift and reshift.
According to Madame Blavatsky the fall of Atlantis occurred because the Atlanteans were playing God; their technologies surpassing their soul connection, they were breeding human-animal chimeras to use as sex slaves and messing around with genetic modification and cloning… the latter sounding alarmingly similar to what is going on today. Having been telepathically warned that the continent would sink, many of the inhabitants of Atlantis fled, setting sail on ships before the final submergence in 9,564 BC from a violent series of earthquakes.
Was Atlantis simply a figment of Plato’s imagination, spurred by nationalistic pride when writing about his beloved Athens, or are there fragments of truth in these ancient myths, passed down and swirled about in the sands of time… Are we heading for the same fate? Or will we merely continue on, ever-evolving and seeking out new answers yet always returning once more to search the bottom of the murky ocean floors.
Subchapters
Legend of Lemuria
Atlantis Myth & Legend
Source