Theos-Talk Archives (December 2005 Message tt00309)

December 27, 2005
 
Dear Friends:
 
            Re:      LAST GREAT ISLAND OF ATLANTIS SINKS      
                                    [see MAHATMA LETTERS , Barker Edn.,   
p. 155    [ 9,564 B C in 1882 ]
 
                        WHERETHE RISHIS WERE
 
 
 
Two interesting TV programs on ATLANTIS (KCET) and TSUNAMIS show continued
confusion over Plato’s Atlantis, Santorini, Atlantic and Caribbean sites.  
 
The letters from the Mahatmas to Mr. A. P. Sinnett show  (see Barker Edn.,
  p. 151, 155 ) this event took place in  9,564 B C in 1882.  The world-wide
effect as a tsunami must have been terrific all over the Atlantic seaboard
and in fact would have affected tide levels catastrophically in all of the
oceans.  There is currently scientific research being done on this. 
 
THEOSOPHY discusses this event as well as earlier continents in the SECRET
DOCTRINE in detail.  It is a review of our past incarnations and progressin
past lives. 
 
To be brief: 
 
The entire evolutionary cycle of humanity on our Earth is 3 fold:  
 
1.  Spiritual (or MONADIC),  
 
2.  Intellectual (Mind and Emotion conjoined), and,  
 
3.  Physical                                         [see SD I 181].
 
In all cases the life-atoms, and human units are immortal MONADS.  The study
of evolution is the study of the progress of the Monads as each is assisting
in the evolutionary development of others which are less progressed.  In all
cases, the wiser assist the rest, who
have less experience, in theirs.
 
Our world and Universe ought to be considered as a vast, living and
progressive BROTHERHOOD.  It is a vast cooperative. The rules and laws of
brotherhood serve to maintain and sustain it.  Every action produces an
equal and equivalent reaction :  Karma. 
The first object of the TS is to demonstrate that fact.
 
The SD was written with that purpose in mind, hence the HISTORY (SD I 267)
of the past is opened to all of us as never before.
 
The sweep of esoteric History shows us in retrospect where we have been, and
how we have participated in the maturation process that has produced our
talents, character, and our personality in general;  it now plays an
important part in our motivation.  
 
But, as students of Theosophy we have to always remember that these are not
the essential "US."  We are the Spiritual MONAD, which is
Atma-Buddhi-Manas.  The "personality" is our vehicle, and our "pupil."
 
We ought to use the diagram that HPB gives us on p. 200 of SECRET DOCTRINE
Vol. I quite frequently.
 
The 2nd volume of the SECRET DOCTRINE deals mainly with the 3rd, 4th and 5th
ROOT RACES of GLOBE "D" in the 4th ROUND. [ the Lemurian, Atlantean, and
Aryan root Races through which we have passed, and are now passing, as
immortal Egos. ]
 
If we wish to review the information given in the SECRET DOCTRINE
concerning the land masses (continents) that were used (in this
the 4th ROUND, GLOBE "D") by the early RACES, when we were
incarnated in and used the type of bodies provided by those
RACES, we could open the 2nd Vol. of the S D at p. 6 where a
table of Continents is given:
 
 
            TABLE OF CONTINENTS  [ 4th Round, Globe"D" ]
 
 
1.  "he IMPERISHABLE SACRED LAND" lasts from one end to the other
of the Manvantara. Presumably this is an area which is never destroyed by 
either floods or volcanism but is reserved for the use of the Wise, who
alone know its present location.
 
2.  "The HYPERBOREAN" -- 2nd Continent - extended its
promontories south from the North Polar area.  Apollo (the Sun,
Hyperboreas) traveled there once a year according to Greek
tradition, and for that half year visit, the Sun never set there.
 
3.  "The LEMURIAN" -- 3rd Continent -- (the name was invented by
P. L. Slater who between 1830-60 asserted its existence on
zoological grounds).  He contended (as does the Secret Doctrine)
that it stretched, shaped like an enormous crescent from
Greenland in the West through England, Europe and North Africa,
then passed through Madagascar and Mauritius, through Ceylon and
Sumatra, then, including Australia, it crossed the Pacific,
touched South America and California and ended in what we call
north-east Asia after passing through the area we name the Bering
Straits in the East.
 
Extreme volcanism began the period of Lemurian destruction [SD II 266], 
and finally its remnants were swept away in a vast flood around 4,242, 352
BC 
[SD I 439fn].
 
4.  "ATLANTIS" --  4th Continent.  It included portions of the
2nd and the 3rd Continents, but was chiefly massed in what is now
the Atlantic Ocean, permitting the passage over land from Europe
to America.  It had many important land masses associated with
it, including north Africa and Egypt, as well as portions of
Central Asia, and some remnants of Lemuria in the Indian and
Pacific ocean areas [SD II 403, 327].
 
Atlantis began a cataclysmic sinking around  998,100 years BC [SD
II 141], and its largest peninsula was submerged around 850,000
BC [SD II p. 10].   Posedonis, the last island (of which Plato
wrote) sank in 9,566 BC [SD II 155 406 444fn  ISIS I 589-594,
"Five Years of Theosophy,"  p. 99fn].  A number of archeologists
and paleographers have remarked on the close similarity of
monuments, zodiacal and astronomical records, and of script that
is to be traced on opposite sides of the Atlantic--showing an
ancient linkage there.
 
5.  "AMERICA" -- is the 5th Continent.  However, in old Sanskrit
literature it was located at "Patala" -- the "antipodes" to India
It is the land mass related to our Race, named the Noble (Aryan).
Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor are parts of the 5th
continent; and, more recently, America has once more become more
densely inhabited in the last 300 years.  But, as we may see when
we consult a map of our Earth, our land masses of today include
portions of the older continents that have been heaved up out of
the ocean.  Submersion and upheaval are constantly going on.
 
It may be noted that the records of the SECRET DOCTRINE are
not limited by (or to) the present geographical outlines of the
configuration of our present continents.  
 
It may be noted that the present "plate-tectonics" hypothesis is not 
endorsed by the S D.  This plausible hypothesis has recently engaged the
attention
of geologists and geographers.  It advances  the concept that our
present known continental patterns are fixed to their "plates."
These in turn "float" and gradually move on a softer subterranean
core of a more fluidic mass of hot rock; and the result is that
they have participated (without altering shape) over millions of
years in "continental drift."   But, this is not a theory that is
confirmed by the esoteric history of our Earth, as given in the
SECRET DOCTRINE.
 
In tracing the past history and movements of the RACES, the land
masses follow the order of evolution of the RACES from 1st to the
5th.  The book The SECRET DOCTRINE, does not take into account
the location and fate of many islands and peninsulas since the
face of the Earth has changed many times, and the Poles have been
inverted several times [SD II 350 353 360 368 432-3 785-6 436].
 
The last serious geographical and geological change occurred
around 12,000  BC [SD II 8-9] and was followed by the submergence
of Posedonis (9,566 BC).  Change in the elevation of the
continents and islands is not always violent states the S D [SD II 787fn].
 
 
            GIANTS
 
The stature of man (which in the early Astral matter races, was
gigantic as compared with ours) has varied and decreased with the
concretisation of the material environment.  The passage from the
1st to the 5th RACE following this increased densification is
traced in the SD  [SD II 9 224-5 336-8]  On page SD II 338, we
read of a still existing series of statues on the north side of
the Hindu Kush range that illustrate this decrease.  At  Bamiyan
stand carved in stone the record of the decreasing size (173,
120, 60, 27, to 6 feet in height ) of the physical forms that
humanity has used.  A few years ago the magazine NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC published photographs of these.
 
 
            LIBRARIES and RECORDS
 
The SECRET DOCTRINE states that a complete record of all these
many changes covering millions of years, have been maintained
[SDI xxiv-v, xxxii, xxxix,  II 324-29 334-5].  Ancient monuments
were erected to show Astronomical time, and record the source of
measures as well as other facts that succeeding civilizations
could use when the time came for their civilizations to emerge
again [SD I 439fn  II 346 430 501 732].
 
 
            FIRST CITIES
 
It was in the 5th Sub-race of the 3rd Root Race (Lemurian) that
mankind separated sexually [SD II 715fn]  In the 6th and 7th Sub
races Cities were built and the first seeds of civilization were
scattered under the watchful eyes of the "Divine Instructors" [SD
II 20-21,199, 220-1, 317-19, 366, 432,  I xxxiv-v].  It was then
that language and writing were developed [SD II 199-201, 346fn,
439-42, 729,  I xxxii].
 
 
            GEOLOGICAL CYCLES OF CHANGE
 
Our Earth is subject to 7 major periodical entire changes which
occur as the RACES change on the GLOBE where they are evolving
[SD II 329].
 
The RACES and their Continents are periodically destroyed
alternately by fire (volcanoes and earthquakes) and water
[floods] -- this is a doctrine as old as man [SD II 725].
 
Our continents, like Lemuria and Atlantis, have been several
times submerged and then have reappeared so that they may bear
their fresh crop of civilized groups of mankind [SD II 332].  AS
an example the Egyptian Pyramids are said to have been three
times submerged [SD I 313 424 617  II 351-2 462-575 749-50
 
Such re-emergence is accompanied by a cleansing process whereby
the thick deposits that cover the land are disposed of and
restore its fertility [SD II 325].
 
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
            GEOLOGICAL ESTIMATES & TIME CHARTS
 
 
[ We give below a table of Geological Ages as they were estimated
in HPB's time, and as they are estimated now.  [SD II 710]
 
 
            GEOLOGICAL CHRONOLOGY
 
            [ These dates are used by Scientific Geology
            and are approximate estimates only. ]
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------
  Name of                                  1888                         
  2000
GEOLOGICAL AGE            HPB's S D  DATES   MODERN   DATES
=================          ==============     ====================
 
PRIMORDIAL          .           321,000,000 years,
  [SD II 711-2]
 
 PALEOZOIC
            Laurentian      .           .           .           .          
1 billion years ?? (+/-)
            Cambrian        .           .           .           .          
590,000,000 years
            Ordovician      .           .           .           .          
505,000,000
            Silurian           .           .           .          
.           438,000,000
 
PRIMARY     .           .	150,000,000 years
  [SD II 712]
 
            Devonian        .           .           .           .          
408,000,000 years
            Carboniferous            .           .           .          
360,000,000
            Permian          .           .           .           .          
280,000,000
 
SECONDARY           .              45,000,000
  [SD II 713-14]
 
  MESOZOIC
 
            Triassic           .           .           .          
.           248,000,000
            Jurassic          .           .           .          
.           213,000,000
            Cretaceous     .           .           .           .          
144,000,000
 
TERTIARY                               	9,000,000
  [SD II 714]
 
  CENOZOIC
 
            Paleocene       .           .           .           .         
65,000,000
            Eocene            .           .           .           .         
55,000,000
            Oligocene       .           .           .           .         
38,000,000
            Miocene         .           .           .           .         
25,000,000
            Pliocene          .           .           .           .         
  5,000,000
 
QUATERNARY                      	1,600,000
  [SD II 715]
 
            Paleolithic       .           .           .
            Pleistocene     .           .           .             .        
2,000,000
            Neolithic         .           .           .
            Holocene        .           .           .             .        
   100,000
            Historical        .           .           .             
.            10,000 (?)
PRESENT DAY
 
[Origin and Evolution of Mammals considered  SD II 724-738.]
 
====================================================
 
 
 
 
                                    WHERE THE RISHIS WERE
 
 
                        The Rishis were the sacred Bards, the Saints, the
great Adepts
                        Knownto the Hindus, who gave great spiritual
impulses in the
                        Past and are said to sometimes reincarnate, and who
at one time
                        livedon the earth among men.
 
 
“The world is made of seas and islands.  For continents are only great lands
water-encircled.  Men must ever live upon sea or land, then, unless they
abide in air, and if  they live in the air, they are not men as we know
them.”
 
Thus I thought as the great ship steamed slowly into the port of a small
island, and before the anchor fell the whole scene seemed to change and the
dazzling light of the past blotted out the dark pictures of modern
civilization.  Instead of an English ship I was standing on an ancient
vehicle propelled by force unknown today, until the loud noises of
disembarkation roused me once again.
 
But landed now, I was standing on the hill overlooking the town and bay. 
The strange light and the curious vehicle again obtained mastery over sense
and eye, while the whole majesty of forgotten years rolled in from the
Ocean.  Vainly did modern education struggle and soar:  I let the curtain
drop upon the miserable present.
 
Now softly sings the water as it rolls against the shore, with the sun but
one hour old shining upon its surface.  But, far off, what is that spot
coming nearer from the West, followed by another and another until over the
horizon rise hundreds, and now some are so near that they are plainly seen? 
The same strange vehicles as that I saw at first.  Like birds they fly
through the air.  They come slowly now, and some have been brought still on
the land.  They light on the earth with a softness that seems nearly human,
with a skill that is marvelous, without any shock or rebound.  From them
alight men of noble mien who address me as friends, and one more noble than
the others seems to say, “Wouldst thou know of all this?  Then come,”as he
turns again to his vehicle that stands there like a bird in wait to be off.
 
“Yes, I will go;” and I felt that the past and the present were but one, and
knew what I should see, yet could not remember it but with a vagueness that
blotted out all the details.
 
We entered the swift intelligently-moving vehicle, and then it rose up on
the air’s wide-spreading arms and flew again fast to the West, where the
water was still softly singing to the beams of the sun.  The horizon slowly
rose and the Island behind us was hidden by the sea from our sight.  And
still as onward we flew to the Occident, many more birds made by manlike
that we were in flew by us as if in haste for the soft-singing waters
lapping the shore of that peak of the sea mountain we had left in the
Orient.  Flying  too high at first we heard no sound from the sea, but soon
a damp vapor that blew in my face from the salt deep showed that we were
descending, and then spoke my friend.
 
“Look below and around and before you!”
 
Down there were the roar and rush of mad billows that reached toward the
sky, vast hollows that sucked in a world.  Black clouds shut out the great
sun, and I saw that the crust of the earth was drawn in to her own
subterranean depths.  Turning now to the master, I saw that he heard my
unuttered question.  He said,
 
“A cycle has ended.  The great bars that kept back the sea have been broken
down by their weight.  From these we have come and are coming.”
 
Then faster sailed our bird, and I saw that a great Island was perishing. 
What was left of the shore still crumbled, still entered the mouth of the
sea.  And there were cars of the air just the same as that I was in, only
dark and unshining, vainly trying to rise with their captains;  rising
slowly, then falling, and then swallowed up. 
 
But here we have rushed further in where the water has not overflowed, and
now we see that few are the bright cars of air that are waiting about while
their captains are entering and spoiling the mighty cars of the men whose
clothing is red and whose bodies, so huge and amazing, are sleeping as if
from the fumes of a drug.
 
As these great red men are slumbering, the light-stepping captains with
sun-colored cloaks are finishing the work of destruction.  And now, swiftly
though we came, the waters have rushed on behind us, the salt breath of the
all-devouring deep sweeps over us.  The sun-colored captains enter their
light air-cars and rise  with a sweep that soon leaves the sleepers, now
waking, behind them.  The  huge red-coated giants hear the roar of the
waters and feel the cold waves roll about them.  They enter their cars, but
only to find all their efforts are wasted.  Soon the crumbling earth no
longer supports them, and all by an inrushing wave are engulfed, drawn into
the mouth of the sea, and the treacherous ocean with roars as of pleasure in
conquest has claimed the last race of that Island.
 
But one has escaped of all the red giants, and slowly but surely his car
sailed up, up, as if to elude the sun-colored men who were spoilers.
 
Then, loud, clear, and thrilling swelled out a note of marvelous power from
my captain, and back came a hundred of those brilliant fast cars that were
speeding off eastward.  Now they pursue the heavy, vast, slow-moving car of
the giant, surround it, and seem to avoid its attacks.  Then again swells
that note from my master as our car hung still on its wings. It was a
signal, obeyed in an instant.
 
One brilliant, small sharp-pointed car is directed full at the red giant’s
vehicle.  Propelled by a force that exceeds the swift bullet, it pierces the
other, itself, too, is broken and falls on the waves with its victim. 
Trembling I gazed down below, but my captain said kindly,
 
“He is safe, for he entered another bright car at the signal.  All those
red-coated men are now gone, and that last was the worse and the greatest.”
 
Back eastward once more through the salt spray and the mist until soon the
bright light shone again and the Island rose over the sea with the
soft-singing water murmuring back to the sun.  We alighted, and then, as I
turned, the whole fleet of swift sailing cars disappeared, and out in the
sky flashed a bright streak of sun-colored light that formed into letters
which read:
 
“This is where the Rishis were before the chalk cliffs of Albion rose outof
the wave.  They were but are not.”
 
And loud, clear and thrilling rose that note I had heard in the car of swift
pinions.  It thrilled me with sadness, for past was the glory and naught for
the future was left but a destiny.
 
 
Bryan Kinnavan
(Wm. Q. Judge)
 
THE PATH,  January 1891.
 
 
==========================================
 
 
Best wishes,
 
 
Dallas