We are going to continue with our examination of life in Atlantis. The general perception of many about this pre-historic civilisation is that somehow it was wondrous and most people glowed in the dark, floating around in diaphanous garments. Nothing could be further from the truth. So, let’s now delve deeper into the Atlantian culture and environment.
The Rmoahal and Tlavatli, lived chiefly by hunting and fishing. They, consequently, had no developed agricultural system, though the Tlavatli had a rudimentary practice of kitchen gardening. The increase in population and civilisation in early Toltec times made a land tenure system necessary, but, largely because of the management of this system, poverty and hunger were nonexistent. The whole of the land and its produce, as well as the flocks and herds, were regarded as belonging to the emperor. The king or viceroy of each district was responsible in his own district for tillage, harvesting, pasturage and agricultural experiments. His agricultural advisers were versed in astronomy and took full advantage of occult influences on plant and animal life. They could produce rain at will; and could even partly neutralise the effects of a glacial epoch. It is interesting to note, that the ownership of all production by the emperor, was in existence right down to the modern Inca civilisation.
We may note here that about 850,000 years ago, during the Toltec ascendancy, there occurred a glacial epoch, which desolated most of Atlantis. During the winter, the northern inhabitants were forced to migrate far south of the ice belt, returning again to their encampments for purposes of hunting in the summer. Getting back to agriculture, the right day for each operation was duly calculated, and every detail was supervised. Each district usually consumed its own produce, though exchange sometimes took place with other districts. Again think “Inca” and you get the general picture. After setting aside a small share for the emperor and the central government; the produce of the whole district was divided among the inhabitants, the local viceroy and his officials receiving the larger share, but everyone receiving sufficient to secure a healthy existence. The increase in production, whether agricultural or mineral, was shared by all, pro rata.
After a long period of successfully operating this system, it declined, negligence, self-seeking and over-indulgence setting in. A particular cause of discontent was that the superior class, whose psychic faculties had been duly developed, delegated to their less highly trained subordinates the task of selecting children for higher technical education. Many mistakes were thus made and people found themselves tied for life in unsuitable occupations. Not a lot has changed in modern times then.
In the later days of Poseidonis, the original system of land tenure gave way to that of individual ownership, as we have it today. As mentioned, a remnant of the original land system survived until the time of the Incas in Peru. All land was vested in the Inca, but half of it was assigned to the cultivators, the other half, in equal shares, to the Inca and the priesthood, who were sun worshippers. Out of his share the Inca maintained the army, the roads and the whole machinery of government, which was in the hands of a special class, representing a culture and civilisation greatly in advance of the majority of the people. Out of their fourth share, the product of the ”lands of the sun,” the priests maintained themselves and the public worship. They carried out the entire education of the people in schools and colleges, as well as tending to the sick. The working population was pensioned off once they reached the age of 45. This allowed them to enjoy their leisure and retirement.
In the days of the Toltecs, when an Adept emperor ruled, there was an initiated priesthood, which constituted a large occult fraternity. This group began to walk the “path”. The individuals capable of beginning their esoteric journey were few in number, related to the mass of the total population. Sun worship was adopted, the spiritually minded regarding the sun as a symbol, the ignorant being unable to see further than the outer symbol. Magnificent temples for sun and fire worship were erected throughout Atlantis, but more especially in the City of the Golden Gates. No image of the Deity was permitted, the sun-disc being considered the only appropriate emblem, a golden disc being usually placed so as to catch the first rays of the rising sun at the vernal equinox or at the summer solstice. This religious system survives in the Shinto worship in Japan, though, unlike the gorgeous temple decorations of Atlantis, the Shinto temples are exquisitely finished in plain woodwork, without carving, paint or any other decoration. In later days the image of an archetypal man was placed in the temples and was adored as the highest representation of the divine.
The evil days, however, drew near, when the race would be overwhelmed by the abyss of selfishness. The idea of an ethical existence decayed and led to the perversion of the spiritual life. Each person fought for themselves and used their knowledge for selfish ends. The Book of Dzyan, a book often quoted by Blavatsky, graphically describes the scene: ”Then the Fourth became tall with pride (the 4th being the Root Race). We are the kings it was said; we are the Gods. . . . They built huge cities. Of rare earths and metals they built, and out of the fires vomited, out of the white stone of the mountains and of the black stone, they cut their own images in their size and likeness, and worshipped them.” The narcissistic worship of self could go no further.
Besides the sun, other symbols were known, and guarded by the priesthood, one of these being the conception of a Trinity in Unity. The Trinities of most sacred significance were never divulged to the people, but the Trinity personifying the cosmic powers of the universe as Creator, Preserver and Destroyer, became publicly known in some distorted manner in the Turanian days; the Turanians being the 4th sub-race. This idea was still further materialised and degraded by the Semites into a strictly anthropomorphic Trinity consisting of father, mother and child.
A further development took place in Turanian days. With the practice of sorcery, many became aware of the existence of powerful elementals, and they called into being, animated by their own powerful wills. So degraded had people become that they began to adore these semi-conscious creatures of their own malignant thought. The ritual was blood-stained from the start, every sacrifice giving vitality to these vampire-like creations, some of them becoming thereby so powerful that they persist to this day, continuing to exact their tribute from unoffending village communities. This blood-stained ritual did not spread to any extent outside the Turanians, though human sacrifice was not uncommon among some of the Semites. In the modern Toltec empire of Mexico, sun worship was the national religion, the only offerings to their beneficent Deity, Quetzalcoatl, being flowers and fruit. With the coming of the savage Aztecs, human sacrifices to their war god, Huitzilopochtli, were introduced. The tearing out of the hearts of their victims on the summit of Teocali may be regarded as a survival of the elemental worship of their Turanian ancestors in Atlantis. I have often wondered why a lot of the iconography on Meso-American temples looked so fearsome. It may be a remembrance of those elemental creatures that were conjured up in the 4th Root Race.
Amongst the Atlanteans, a prominent symbol was the heart, which represented, amongst other things, the atom, which has a pulsation like the beating of the human heart. They also considered the sun, to have a similar movement, connected with the sun-spot cycle. They also thought that the earth itself breathed and moved, and scientists have discovered that there is a regular daily displacement of the earth’s surface, which may be thought of as corresponding in a certain way to breathing.
We should all be aware by now that the Atlantean Race, being the fourth Root Race, represents the middle or turning point of the cycle of descent of spirit into matter; and also that Kâma, which is desire, reaches its culmination in this Fourth Race. Hence we find that the intensification of Kâma resulted in degraded animal propensities and brutal passions, the slight development of the mind, or Manas, serving only to add zest to the gratification of the senses. Moreover, their sensitivities to higher things had not yet been completely submerged and been drowned by the descent into matter, so that, side by side with the unsavoury characteristics mentioned, we find they had considerable psychic faculties and godlike intuition.
Save for the more advanced individuals, who were few, none had attained the powers of abstract thought, but the concrete mind was able to function strongly. Consequently, we see them well advanced in the practical concerns of everyday life, especially when their psychic faculties were directed towards the same objectives. Gradually, of course, their psychic faculties were lost and they descended deep into selfishness and materialism.
Although earlier root races had begun to fight with one another, it was the Atlanteans who first developed organised warfare. The principle of strife was the fundamental characteristic of the 4th Root-Race. All through the Atlantean period, war on land and sea was the order of the day. So deeply rooted in man’s nature did the principle of strife become that even now the most intellectually developed of the Aryan (fifth) Root Race are ready to war upon each other at the drop of a hat. The fact that Kings and heads of state consider it necessary or appropriate, on state occasions, to appear in the uniform of one of the fighting services, is a significant indication of the primacy reached by the combative qualities in humanity.
The sacred word of the Atlantean Race was Tau, just as that of the fifth or Aryan Race is Om. It is said that the sacred words given to the Root Races in succession are consecutive syllables of one great word which is the true sacred Name.
There still exists today an occult Lodge for esoteric study, preliminary focused on Initiation, founded originally in Atlantis by Adepts. It observes the same old-world ritual, even teaching as a sacred and hidden language the same Atlantean tongue used so many thousands of years ago. It was the chiefs of this Lodge who founded the modern esoteric traditions we see around us today. No prizes for guessing who those two individuals were.
OK, with that covered, in the next presentation, we will look at the ancient civilisation that was to be found in Peru some 14,000 years ago. This is the closest analogue we have to our Atlantian past.