(Published in GralsWelt 23/2002)
THE SUNKEN WORLD
In the nineteenth-century human understanding of history, there was an ongoing rise in human culture. From this perspective, progress follows progress. They even took the collapse of states and civilizations as calmly as one comes to terms with the fact that one day a big old tree will fall to make way for younger life. Accordingly, the fall of Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Rome would only underline that the outdated old must give way to the powerful young. That, too, is part of the necessary “progress” and is easy to say in the affirmative, especially if you feel you belong to a young, up-and-coming people.
We can no longer see world history as simply and naturally as in the 19th century. The 20th century not only brought many discoveries and gained innumerable new insights, but also brought bitter experiences. The history of mankind in our day can not only be traced back further into the past, it is also more complicated and confusing than before; because more new questions have arisen than old ones could be answered.
One of these unsolved questions is the probability of an "antediluvian high civilization" on this planet. Myths, legends, visions, religious traditions in particular, seem to tell of it, and numerous archaeological finds suggest that we are far from knowing all sunken cultures, indeed that millennia before our era there existed unknown empires, which were culturally and civilizationally hardly less developed than Renaissance Europe. Time enough was present, if one considers that humans developed physically hardly in the last fifty or even hundred thousand years, thus many millennia ago not less intelligently and skillfully, than today.
Was there an antediluvian empire?
When speaking of an as yet undiscovered, ancient culture, the word "Atlantis" will be used. The sound of this name is fascinating, almost enchanting, as if it could awaken ancient memories that have vanished from day-to-day consciousness; Human memories of a long, long-blown, grandiose time. There should be more than 25,000 books on Atlantis; but his riddle still awaits a solution, and in spite of all research we know little more than Plato, from whom one of the oldest of the known traditions comes.
According to Plato, there was once a large island in the Atlantic Ocean on which people of a highly developed civilization lived. In his two dialogues, called "Timaeus" and "Kritias", Plato knows a lot about the high culture, wealth and power of the Atlanteans. His stories sound so incredible that they have been referred to the realm of fable by philologists and archaeologists.
No less astonishing than the high civilization of the Atlanteans described by Plato, their fall also seems. Huge earthquakes and floods caused the island to sink into the sea during "one bad day and one bad night".
What should one think of Plato's Atlantis report?
Opinions still differ about this to this day. Quite a few researchers take Plato seriously and believe that the Atlantic culture existed. Others, including well-known scientists, see Plato's Atlantis stories as just a legend that is not worth discussing.
Plato reports that the Athenian Solon received the news of Atlantis from Egyptian priests, which Solon's grandson Critias narrates as follows:
„... Because at that time you could still navigate the sea there, namely in front of the mouth, which you call the 'Pillars of Heracles', an island larger than Asia and Libya put together, and from there you could still cross to the other islands and from the islands to the whole of the opposite mainland, which surrounds that sea, which is actually so called. Everything that lies within the mentioned estuary appears only like a bay with a narrow entrance; but that ocean is rightly called a continent, and the land on its shores is just as right. On this island of Atlantis there was a great and admirable royal power, which commanded the whole island, but also many other islands and parts of the mainland; in addition, their power extended over Libya to Egypt and in Europe to Tyrrhenia. This empire once made an attempt to subdue our and your country, in general, the whole area within the estuary with a single blow, with a united army. Then the power of your state was shown in all its glory and strength before all people: ahead of all others in heroism and cunning, he first led the Hellenes, but later saw himself compelled by the apostasy of the others to build on his own strength, and in spite of the extreme danger he finally overcame the oncoming enemy and erected signs of victory; so he prevented the submission of those not yet enslaved and became a noble liberator to us within the gates of Heracles. There were great earthquakes and floods later, and in the course of a bad day and night, all of your warring sexes sank underground in droves, and so did the island of Atlantis. That is why you can no longer navigate and explore the sea there, because high-piled masses of mud, which were created by the sinking of the island, make it impossible ... "
(From Plato's "Timaeus").
What do esotericists say?
A popular argument against the vanished high culture is that typically esotericism has taken over this topic and comes up with such impossible assertions that one does not need to bother to refute them.
It is not uncommon for esotericists to refer to “old, lost” knowledge that needs to be understood or rediscovered; on knowledge from a blown time, in which more wisdom was available and also lived, than in historical epochs.
Indeed, Atlantis plays a role in esoteric teachings. Theosophists z. B. believe on the basis of supernatural inspirations that four major catastrophes struck the earth, and speak of the lost empires Atlantis (in the Atlantic) and Lemuria or Mu (in the Pacific or in the Ind).
These teachings come from Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), the founder of theosophy. The science fiction author W. Scott-Elliot published detailed descriptions of Atlantis and Lemuria, the other theosophists such as Annie Besant (1847-1933) and Charles W. Leadbeater (1847-1934), as well as the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner (1861- 1925) are said to have served as templates (6, p. 366). As early as the 19th century, their assertions met with decisive rejection by historians who endeavored to expose the theosophical writings as poorly compiled plagiarism (4, p. 67). Such disputes brought the Atlantis issue into disrepute and led many scientists to refuse to deal with it to this day.
Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), the most famous American clairvoyant, also spoke of Atlantis. According to his visions, there was a high civilization there whose technology was at least equal to ours, if not superior. Remains should be found, and one day even parts of Atlantis could emerge again from the sea, as already promised in Roman times:
"Although it is still far away, the time will come one day
Where Oceanus will unleash the world;
A vast area will then appear
New parts of the world rise from the tide
Thule is no longer the ultimate land. "
Seneca, Medea (7, p.17).
Such advice should not be rejected as a matter of principle. So, as we will report later, based on the information provided by Cayce near Bimini, ruins were discovered in the sea, which possibly prove the former existence of Atlantis.
Even recollections of Atlantis that have been published on various occasions can - with all the caution with which one must encounter supernatural experiences - contain interesting clues.
We will not go into the esoteric teachings here, but try to find facts. Their evaluation is still exciting enough, full of pros and cons, so that it is up to each reader to form their own picture.
The sunken island kingdom
As we will show in this series, there is much to suggest that before the Flood there was a high culture that had technical skills, astronomical and geographical knowledge that was only achieved in Europe after the Renaissance. Traces of a highly civilized technology can be found on different continents, and the numerous finds are so convincing that, despite all the reservations of the professional world, one should reckon with the existence of a once important civilization.
Klaus Aschenbrenner, who describes the Atlanteans as "antilids", summarizes the current state of research as follows:
“The large Azores island probably served the Antilids as a starting point and first seat of power. Later a second center was built in the Bahamas, from which the entire Caribbean and the coasts of Central and South America were ruled. These areas formed the nutritional basis of the antilids. The Andes, like the Mediterranean, provided them with valuable ores and other raw materials, such as white marble. It was from this Mediterranean region that the ancestors of the Antilids had once started their journey westwards into the unknown. Thousands of years later, the Antilids ruled the Atlantic Ocean and the neighboring countries as a technical high civilization, at a time when the other peoples were taking the first steps on the way from Ice Age hunters and gatherers to farmers and ranchers ”. (1, p. 148).
Much of this statement is highly hypothetical; z. B. the origin of the Atlanteans, the location of their capital (Poseidia?), And the size of their empire. But as I said, much speaks for the existence of an antediluvian culture that perished in a cataclysm, whether it was called Atlantis, Antilia or whatever. -
Continued Part II
Read on the topic of "Atlantis" under "Book and film reviews" the entry "The Serpent in the Firmament", "The Mystery of the Portolane". under "Strange stories" and in "Short, sweet, curious" on page 466 "The mysterious cosmology of the Dogon".
Literature:
(1) Aschenbrenner, Klaus "Die Antiliden", Herbig, Munich 1993
(2) Berlitz, Charles “Das Atlantis Rätsel”, Droemer-Knaur, Munich 1978
(3) Cayce, Edgar Evans "Edgar Cayce on Atlantis", Howthorn Books, New York 1968
(4) de Camp "Sunken Continents", Wilh. Heyne, Munich 1975
(5) Hope, Murry "Atlantis", Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt, 1994
(6) Miers, Horst E. “Lexicon of Secret Knowledge”, Wilh. Goldmann, Munich 1982
(7) Seneca, L. Annaeus “Medea”, translated by Max Schmitt-Hartlieb, Kurt Vieweg, Leipzig 1929
