Mount Shasta
|
The lowly primate, the lemur, was named after ancient Roman mythological ghosts called 'lemures.' According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1970, there was a Roman festival called 'Lemuria.' But the modern name of 'Lemuria' was named for the mammal lemur. In the mid-19th Century paleontologists coined the term 'Lemuria' to describe a hypothetical continent, bridging the Indian Ocean, which would have explained the migration of lemurs from Madagascar to India. Lemuria was a continent which submerged and was no longer to be seen. By the late 19th Century occult theories had developed, mostly through the theosophists, that the people of this lost continent of Lemuria were highly advanced beings. The location of the folklore 'Lemuria' changed over time to include much of the Pacific Ocean. In the 1880s a Siskiyou County, California, resident named Frederick Spencer Oliver wrote A Dweller on Two Planets, or, the Dividing of the Way which described a secret city inside of Mt. Shasta, and in passing mentioned Lemuria. Edgar Lucian Larkin, a writer and astronomer, wrote in 1913 an article in which he reviewed the Oliver book.
In 1925 a writer by the name of Selvius wrote "Descendants of Lemuria: A Description of an Ancient Cult in America" which was published in the Mystic Triangle, Aug., 1925 and which was entirely about the mystic Lemurian village at Mt. Shasta. Selvius reported that Larkin had seen the Lemurian village through a telescope. In 1931 Wishar Spenle Cervé published a widely read book entitled Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific in which the Selvius material appeared in a slightly elaborated fashion. The Lemurian–Mt. Shasta legend has developed into one of Mt. Shasta's most prominent legends. The entries in this section document the books and articles about Mt. Shasta and its Lemurians.
Especially interesting from a historical standpoint is the 1960 book by 'Mother Mary' entitled "Atlantis Speaks Again." The book discusses the publishing history of the Oliver manuscript, replete with appearance of Phylos the Tibetan after the death of Oliver. 'Mother Mary' was part of a tradition of people associated with Frederick Spencer Oliver and the book contains essays by Oliver himself, and contains as well reproductions of the original Oliver manuscript.C
Visit the online bibliography to
search bibliographic entries or browse the entries below.
The [MS
number] indicates the Mount Shasta Special Collection accession numbers
used
by the College of the Siskiyous Library.
[MS154]. Andrews,
Richard R. The Truth Behind the Legends of Mt. Shasta. New
York: Carlton Press, Inc., 1976. Written to dispel the confusion which arises
from the study of the many different myths and legends about Mount Shasta. The
author states that he is an experienced metaphysician trained under Dr. Doreal
(see Doreal Mysteries of Mt. Shasta ). Note that the author makes many
unexplained comments, such as: "The Great Souls, the inhabitants of the Secret
City of Mt. Shasta, are not the Lemurians as legends would have us to believe.
They are Atlanteans. It is an Atlantean Colony. One of their tasks is to guard
the Lemurians that are imprisoned beneath the Caroline Islands" (p. 23); and:
"What about the UFOs? All are not from outer space. Some are from our Secret
Cities here on earth"
(p. 31). The author states on the final page
that: "Notice, O people, the wisdom in this message is ever shining with truth,
vibrating with rhythm and endowed with beauty, because as a channel I am
fulfilling a duty. Revere it and let it inspire and enhance thee, let it remind
thee of the Seven Secret Cities of which one is Mt. Shasta but not in view of
the mortal eyes, because of the conduct and habit of lies. Legends have
flourished and perversion grew thick, but the Great ones are not troubled with
our ignorance and tricks" (p. 48). Contains a photograph of Dr.
Doreal. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS154].
[MS2000]. Beckley,
Timothy Green. The Smoky God and Other Inner Earth
Mysteries. New Brunswick: Inner Light Publications, 1993. 141
pp. Consists of several essays, the major essay is 'Olaf Jansens's
Story' written in the late 1800's. Table of contents: Author's foreword --
Olaf Jansen's story -- Beyond the north wind -- In the under world -- Among the
ice packs -- Conclusion -- Author's afterword -- Saucers from Earth! -- Secrets
of the subterranean cities -- The Agartha network -- Capitol cities -- Spotlight
on Telos -- Introducing the woman from Telos, the city beneath Mount Shasta /
Sharula -- Aliens & Atlanteans of Mount Shasta / Commander X -- The girl
from beneath Mt. Shasta. . "A rare--century old, but all
too true--book tells of a fantastic journey made inside the earth where the
author meets a race of giants who befriend him. This valuable manuscript was
believed lost for all time, but is now reprinted in its entirety, along with
other incredible material that provides important evidence that our earth is
hollow and populated by a super race believed related to those who once resided
on the continents of Lemuria and Atlantis.'"(book jacket).
Contains two
accounts of Mount Shasta: an interview with 'Sharula, princess of the
underground city beneath Mt. Shasta' p. 113-128, and an essay by Commander X
entitled: ' Aliens and Atlanteans of Mount Shasta', pp. 129-140. Sharula states
that Teleos is primary Lemurian outpost located within Mt. Shasta, with a small
secondary city in Mt. Lassen, California, US. Teleos means 'communicaton with
Spirit.' Population 1.5 million.' 'My name is Sharula and I come from a city
underneath Mt. Shasta, called Telos. The city was constructed about 14,000 years
ago at the termination of the Lemurian continent. When the scientists and
priests of Lemuria realized the continent was about to sink, they petitioned a
group called the Agharta Network, which controlled all the subterranean cities,
to build our own city beneath Mt. Shasta. There was an original set of caverns
there. We chose to enlarge these caverns to make them bigger and more
livable......We have perpetual light through a process of energizing stones to
create full spectrum lighting. We process them with the forces that make small
suns. (p. 122). ' Commander X states: 'One of the UFO underground bases
the 'good guys' are definitely in control of, is the baase beneath Mt. Shasta in
northern California. The tunnels under Mt. Shasta are vast and house equipment
and ships you wouldn't believe could possibly exist. There are teleportation and
levitation devices, huge( by our defintion)'Mother -Ships' and a crystal almost
the size of a New York City skyscraper.' (p. 129). Contains a description of
'Bonnie' who was born in Telos and because of the account's details, must be the
same person as 'Sharula'. Commander X quotes 'Bonnie' as saying that the
early Lemurians come from the planet Aurora (p. 136.). See also Robbins,
Diane "We Are Not Alone" for another version of the Teleos
story. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS2000].
[MS954]. Blavatsky, Helene Petrovna 1831-1891. Isis Unveiled: A Master Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology. Theosophical University Press, 1960. First published 1877. Not seen. Reported to contain the first metaphysical interpretation of Lemuria. Many of the esoteric legends of Mt. Shasta, including those about Saint Germain, have indirect links to the writings of Madame Blavatsky. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS954].
[MS1294]. [California Folklore]. Le Murians. In: California Folklore. 1960. Vol. 17. p. 157. Source of citation: Lamson, 1984, p. 124 16. Legends: Lemuria/40. Find List. [MS1294].
[MS153]. Cerve, Wishar
Spenle 1883-1939. Lemuria: The Lost Continent of Pacific. San
Jose, Calif.: Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC [Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis]
, 1974. Fourteenth edition. 'With a special chapter by Dr. James D. Ward.' First
published 1931. Additional subtitle on dustjacket: 'The Mystery People of
Mt. Shasta.' Wishar Spenle CervŽ is the pseudonym of Harve Spencer Lewis. First
paperbound edition published in 1997. Contains only one
short chapter about the legends of Lemurians in northern California. The chapter
is entitled "Chapter XI: Present-Day Mystic Lemurians in California" and the Mt.
Shasta portions are based in large part on the Selvius 1925 article about a
Lemurian Village on Mt. Shasta (see Selvius
1925).
CervŽ's tale contains a
description of the Mt. Shasta Lemurians: "one of these oddly dressed individuals
would come to one of the smaller towns and trade nuggets and gold dust for some
modern commodities. These odd-looking persons were...tall, graceful, and agile
....with larger heads, much larger foreheads, headdresses that had a special
decoration that came down over the center of the forehead to the bridge of the
nose, and thus hid or covered a part of the forehead that many have attempted to
see and study" (pp. 250-251).
The book states
that the ruins of the Lemurians are found all over northern California and
southern Oregon; in particular there was a well-built Lemurian preserve on top
of a mountain north of Olene in Klamath County. Contains a rather speculative
account of the Klamath Lake Indian petroglyphs resembling the characters of the
supposed Lemurian alphabet, the Greek alphabet, and the ancient Druid
brotherhood (p. 241). Contains short discussions of the lights seen on Mount
Shasta and of the tunnel into the city inside Mount
Shasta.
According to the publisher's preface
an organization named the Oriental Literature Syndicate received circa 1920 a
collection of "very rare manuscripts dealing with many of the age old traditions
preserved in the secret archives of Tibet and China....Among the manuscripts
retained by the Oriental Literature Syndicate were several dealing with the
ancient records and traditions telling the story of the lost continent of
Lemuria. It was the intention of the Syndicate eventually to gather together
from all parts of the world the thousands of tabulated and recorded facts
regarding Lemuria and its people, and to put these into a highly instructive and
fascinating book for public dissemination." Note that the Lemuria-Mt. Shasta
legend was not necessarily part of the manuscripts mentioned above, only that
the organization was going to do research into
Lemuria.
In 1925 AMORC published some of the
organization's findings about Lemuria in an article written by Selvius (see
Selvius 1925). Note that the 1925 Selvius material was entirely about Mt. Shasta
and also mentioned the forthcoming book which was not published until
1931.
Lemuria... was the only book ever
published under the Wishar S. CervŽ pseudonym, though H. Spencer Lewis was a
prolific author under his own name. Another pseudonym of H. Spencer Lewis was
"Sri Ramatherio," author of the 1925 Oriental Literature Syndicate publication
entitled Unto Thee I Grant (see Sri Ramatherio
1948).
In 1931 AMORC published the Lemuria...
book. It was in large part responsible for the popularization of the Mt. Shasta
Lemurian myths and legends. Published in 1931 it closley corresponds to the
Selvius article of 1925, and predates several other articles and books of the
early 1930s which also helped promote the Lemurian-Mt. Shasta legend (see Lanser
1932, Spence 1933).
Note that there was an
earlier Mt. Shasta book, F. S. Oliver's circa 1899 Phylos the Thibetan... ,
which although it only briefly mentioned Lemuria does seem to be the source of
many of Mt. Shasta's legends of temples, tunnels, and interdimensional beings.
Astronomer and author Edgar Lucian Larkin in 1913 published an article about
lost continents which in part contained Larkin's review of Oliver's book. The
Selvius 1925 and CervŽ 1925 material about Larkin viewing Mt. Shasta through a
telescope and seeing a Lemurian temple and village was probably based on a
misreading of Larkin's 1913 article. 16. Legends:
Lemuria. [MS153].
[MS744]. Childress,
David Hatcher. Lost Cities of Ancient Lemuria and the
Pacific. Stelle, Ill.: Adventures Unlimited Press Publisher's Network,
1988. Contains an introductory chapter on the history of the geological and
occult concepts of the lost Pacific continent of Lemuria. The author states that
"The word Lemuria is not an ancient one, nor is it mentioned in any traditional
legends. Its origin is geological and it came into being circa 1887" (p. 5).
Note, however that other books contain references to the ancient Roman festival
of Lemuria, and that the geological use of the term Lemuria dates back to the
1860s (see "Lemuria in Ancient Antiquity" in Hammond and Scullard 1970; and see
McGillivray 1985).
Theories of the lost
continent of Mu are considered. The author makes no differentiation between
Lemuria and Mu, when he states that: "From historical sources one can also find
reports of lost civilizations such as Atlantis, the ancient Rama Empire of
India, the Osirian Civilization in the Mediterranean Valley and North America,
Hyperboreans, and a lost civilization in the Pacific generally known as 'Mu' or
'Lemuria'" (p. 4). Note that James Churchward, the great investigator of the Mu
legends of antiquity, however, never equated the two theoretical continents (see
Churchward 1953). The author describes in some detail the Lemurian concepts of
H. P. Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical
Society.
In the main the book is not a history
but rather a first person account of travels around the world in search of
ancient mysteries. The author qualifies his personal use of the term Lemuria by
stating that: "The subject of lost continents needs to be approached with a good
measure of caution. There is a good deal of occult mumbo-jumbo as well as
out-and-out falsities and hoaxes connected with ancient civilizations,
especially Atlantis and Lemuria. As I refer to 'Lemuria,' a vague term at best,
I am speaking not necessarily of a continental land mass, but perhaps of a
Pan-Pacific culture that merely inhabited the various island archipelagos prior
to the present-day inhabitants" (p. 6). 16. Legends:
Lemuria. [MS744].
[MS48]. Churchward,
James 1852-1936. Cosmic Forces: As They Were Taught in Mu Relating to
the Earth. Volume 2. Mt. Vernon, N.Y.: The author, 1935. First
American edition. This is the only book by Colonel James
Churchward which directly mentions Mt. Shasta. Churchward developed an elaborate
theory of geology based on the idea of very long gas chambers or tunnels running
through the earth. He calls his tunnels gas 'belts', and these belts roughly
line up the world's volcanoes. He includes a map of the 'Cascade Belt' which
consists of three or more tunnels which intertwine like loose ropes underground
along the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges. He says "During the last few years
there have been several quakes in Mexico on this belt, some doing damage to life
and property. An extremely bad belt block in Mexico would send Mt. Shasta and
Mt. Lassen into activity again" (pp. 172-173). The map appears on p.
171.
Churchward's observations of the linear
chains of the world's volcanoes can be explained today by the theory of plate
tectonics subduction zones. 16. Legends: Lemuria.
[MS48].
[MS73]. Churchward,
James 1852-1936. The Children of Mu. New York: Ives Washburn,
1953. First American edition published in 1931, earlier English editions may
exist. Colonel James Churchward, who studied during the
late nineteenth century with spiritual teachers in India, came upon some ancient
writings in India which in turn led him to a lifelong search for the land of Mu.
Note that Churchward was not the originator of the name or idea of Mu. In 1864 a
French scholar named Brasseur studied Mayan writings and discovered the story of
a lost continent which he named MU after the resemblance of two indecipherable
symbols which appeared to look like the M and U of modern alphabets. A French
archaeologist named Plongeon later uncovered the story of MU as written on the
walls of Mayan ruins (see Mystic Places. Time-Life
books,1987).
In Children of Mu, Churchward
summarizes his idea of Mu: "For the benefit of those who have not read The Lost
Continent of Mu a short synopsis of its contents follows. The Land of Mu was a
large continent situated in the Pacific Ocean between America and Asia, its
center lying somewhat south of the equator. Basing its area on the remains which
are still above water, it would have been about six thousand miles from north to
south. All the rocky islands, individually and in groups, scattered over the
Pacific Ocean were once part of the continent of Mu. About twelve thousand years
ago cataclysmic earthquakes rent Mu asunder. She became a fiery vortex, and the
waters of the Pacific rushed in, making a watery grave for a vast civilization
and sixty millions of people. Easter Island, Tahiti, Somoas, Cook, Tongas,
Marshall, Gilbert, Caroline, Marianas, Hawaii and the Marquesas are the pathetic
fingers of that great land, standing today as sentinels to a silent grave" (p.
15).
Modern geologists would scoff at
Churhward's ideas, since the above mentioned islands are evidently the result of
individual volcanic sea mounts and not the result of any breaking up of a
supercontinent.
The idea of Mu is in many
respects similar to the idea of Lemuria. Mu and Lemuria are not necessarily one
and the same hypothetical continent. Churhward's ideas of Mu seem to have a
genesis in archeology and the written record of the world's cultures, whereas
Lemuria was originally the result of paleontology.
In the popular folk tales of Mt. Shasta,
Lemuria is most often mentioned, and Mu comes in a distant second. But both
ideas have been adapted to the local lore, since either hypothetical continent
could have left survivors, corporeal or otherwise, who live in, at, under,
above, or through Mt. Shasta.
Churchward wrote
several works beginning with The Lost Continent of Mu first published in London
in 1926. He also wrote The Children of Mu; The Sacred Symbols of Mu; and the
Cosmic Forces of Mu in two volumes. An autobiographical account of his life in
India was presented in his lecture before the American Society for Psychical
Research in New York, in April of 1931, and published in Santesson, Hans Stefan.
Understanding Mu New York: Warner Books, Inc.,
1970.
Only one of Churchward's books mentions
Mt. Shasta. On page 172 of Cosmic Forces, Vol. 2, Mt. Shasta is noted as one of
the Cascade Peaks (see Churchward 1935). 16. Legends:
Lemuria. [MS73].
[MS482]. Cooke, William Bridge 1908-1991. Cooke Discusses 'Lost Continent' Book. In: Mount Shasta Herald. Mt. Shasta, Calif.: Dec. 11, 1940. Mount Shasta botanist W. B. Cooke describes what fields of knowledge are useful in determining if the lost continents of "Lemuria" and or "Mu" did indeed exist. Cooke concludes that: " ...a continent of the great extent described in either book [Churchward's or CervŽ's] is not believed to have existed at any time by any recognized scientist." Cooke outlines the fields of Astronomy, Physics, Geology, Physiography, Geography, Biology, Zoology, Botany, Ecology, Genetics, Paleontology, Archeology, and Ethnology. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS482].
[MS262]. Davies,
Clem. Lemurians on Mt. Shasta. Hollywood, Calif.: Dr. Clem
Davies' Ministry, Inc., 1955? 21 page pamphlet. The
author, who constantly reminds the reader that "truth is stranger than fiction,"
uncritically accepts many of the Lemurian myths about Mount Shasta. Myths retold
are those of Mr. Lewis Spence, Professor Larkin, the I AM organization, and the
Rosicrucians. The author concludes that "the Aquarian Age" in which the human
race regains the lost powers held by the Lemurians, is one and the same as the
"Millennium" (p. 17). He writes: "God gives us glimpses, such, for instance, as
this one [the existence of Lemurians] on Mt. Shasta, of a great and better world
in the Millennium to come" (pp. 20-21).
The
Clem Davies Timely Topic Radio Program series, broadcast on KMTR, Hollywood,
published scripts of programs (see computer catalog OCLC). The "Lemurians on Mt.
Shasta" may have been part of the radio script series.
16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS262].
[MS82]. de Camp, L.
Sprague. Lost Continents. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.,
1970. First published 1954. Contains a chapter entitled
"The Land of the Lemurs," (pp. 51-75). Covers the mid-19th Century use of
the name "Lemuria" by paleogeologists, and credits English zoologist Philip L.
Sclater with the coining the term Lemuria. Lemuria, or Land of the Lemurs,
refers to the land bridge continent hypothetically accounting for the fossil
remains of lemurs in both Madagascar and India. The author explains how the idea
of a Lemuria was appropriated by Madame Blavatsky and Theosophists, including
Scott-Elliot and Rudolf Steiner, and how eventually the idea entered into the
lore of Mt. Shasta via the writings of Frederick Scott Oliver, Edgar Lucien
Larkin, W.S. CervŽ, and Edward Lanser. The author also discusses critically the
'I AM' stories of Guy Warren Ballard (pp. 71-72). Contains an excellent and
lengthy bibliography on lost continents (pp.
319-331).
De Camp dismisses the credibility of
the Mt. Shasta Lemurian sightings by the Mt. Lowe observatory astronomer Edgar
Lucian Larkin, sightings which CervŽ, and others, held as proof of Mt. Shasta's
Lemurians. De Camp writes: "This tale [F.S. Oliver's Phylos...] influenced Edgar
Lucian Larkin, an elderly occultist who for some years before his death in 1924
ran the Mount Lowe Observatory in California--not to be confused with the nearby
Mount Wilson Observatory. Whereas the latter is a great scientific institution,
the Mount Lowe Observatory was operated as a tourist attraction by the Pacific
Electric Railway in connection with their Mount Lowe Inn. Larkin showed visitors
the stars through a small telescope until in the 1930s the telescope mechanism
broke down and the Inn burned" (pp. 71-72). Note however that de Camp does not
mention that Professor Larkin was a well-known science writer and contributor to
the Hearst newspapers. 16. Legends: Lemuria.
[MS82].
[MS930]. Doreal, M. The Return of the Gods to America. Sedalia, Colo.: Brotherhood of the White Temple, Inc., 1943. 'First Printing 1943.' Discusses Atlantis and mentions Lemuria, but does not mention Mt. Shasta. One can infer that the author's other books, including the undated Mysteries of Mt. Shasta , were published around the same time as this 1943 book. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS930].
[MS907]. Doreal, M. Atlantis and Lemuria. Sedalia, Colo.: Brotherhood of the White Temple, Inc., no date. Does not mention Mt. Shasta, though the author also published a booklet entitled Mysteries of Mt. Shasta. Draws from a wide range of published sources especially those of Lewis Spence (see Spence The Problem of Lemuria 1976). Augmented by the author's own theories which run counter to most of the published theories of an advanced Lemurian civilization; he states: "The Lemurians had developed a tremendous mechanistic race. The Lemurians were comparable to our civilization of today; perhaps a little more advanced in some things; perhaps a little less than others....the Lemurians did not maintain their culture but rather, it degenerated and formed the highest barbaric tribes of the past." 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS907].
[MS458]. Doreal,
M. Mysteries of Mount Shasta. Sedalia, Colo.: Brotherhood of
the White Temple, Inc., no date. A classic example of the fantastic stories
about Mt. Shasta. Contains an account of the author's visit in 1931 to Mt.
Shasta: "I am going to give you an account of what happened to me in 1931. I am
not going to ask you to believe it but it is not a fairy story. When I was
lecturing in Los Angeles, in 1931, two of the inhabitants of Mt. Shasta came to
Los Angeles and attended my lectures and they were there for a week before they
let me know who they were and then, one Friday evening, they introduced
themselves to me and they told me I could visit them at Mt. Shasta. I told them
it was impossible for me to go there and get back in time for my lecture. They
said, 'We have another way of going,' so we took a car out into the hills, just
off Cahuenga Boulevard, - out through Hollywood and drove out toward Topanga
Canyon. They gave me a little thin mask almost like celophane. We did not have
celophane at that time, at least not much, and it had no chemicals and they told
me to put that over my face and I did. Then they gave me a belt with two little
pockets on the side and a row of buttons. I did not know what was going to
happen, but I knew something was going to happen. Each one took me by the arm
and told me to press certain buttons and I went up through the air like a rocket
plane and we rose until the earth looked like it was almost fading out, breathed
perfectly because something in that mask over my face condensed the breath and
it seemed that around us there was a shell of some kind of force, because I
could hear a humming noise all the time. When we came down it seemed like almost
no time had passed; propably, fifteen or twenty minutes. We landed about two
thirds up the side of Mt. Shasta-we landed in front of a small building" (pp.
12-13). Also describes a city within the mountain: "....The space we came into
was about two miles in height and about twenty miles long and fifteen miles wide
and it was as light as a bright summer day, because suspended, almost in the
center of that great cavern of space was a giant glowing mass of light" (p. 14).
According to the author, Lemurians, cigar-shaped ships, and the Caroline Islands
are all important to the story of Mt. Shasta.
Note that a biography of M. Doreal can be found in Kafton-Minkel's Subterranian
Worlds, 1989. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS458].
[MS708]. [Fortnight: Magazine of the Pacific Coast]. The Lemurians of Mt. Shasta. In: Fortnight: Magazine of the Pacific Coast. March, 1957. pp. 34-35. A general account of the Lemurians on Mt. Shasta. Not well-researched. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS708].
[MS392]. Haeckel, Ernst
Heinrich 1834-1919. Hypothetical Sketch of the Monophyletic Origin and
the Diffusion of the Twelve Species of Men from Lemuria over the Earth. In:
Spence, Lewis 1874-1955. The Problem of Lemuria: The Sunken Continent
of the Pacific. Mokelumne Hill, Calif.: Health Research, 1976.
Haeckel's article circa 1875? Spence's book first published in in England in
1933. Haeckel was one of the truly great scientists of
the 19th century. He wrote that: "The hypothesis here geographically sketched of
course only claims an entirely provisional value, as in the present imperfect
state of our anthropological knowledge it is simply intended to show how the
distribution of the human species, from a single primeval home, may be
approximately indicated. The probable home, or 'Paradise' is here assumed to be
Lemuria, a tropical continent at present lying below the level of the Indian
Ocean, the former existence of which in the Tertiary Period seems very probable
from numerous facts in animal and vegetable geography. But it is also very
possible that the hypothetical 'cradle of the human race' lay further to the
east (in Hindostan of Further India), or further to the west (in Eastern
Africa). Future investigations, especially in comparative anthropology and
paleontology, will, it is to be hoped, enable us to determine the probable
position of the primeval home of man more definitely than it is possible to do
at present" (p. 102-103).
Note that Haeckel
was a professor of zoology in Germany, and he published writings mostly about
oceanic invertebrates. Widely read and highly learned, he became one of the
first scientists to draw up a convincing genealogical tree of the relationships
among animals. His use of the name and idea of ''Lemuria," conjoined with his
ideas of the twelve human races which stemmed from the proposed continent,
helped popularized the name Lemuria. His cautious and scientific ideas were
apparently appropriated by Madame Blavatsky as the basis for the
pseudoscientific Lemurian and 'root race' theories of her Theosophical school
and its later derivatives. 16. Legends: Lemuria.
[MS392].
[MS103]. Hamilton, William F. The Girl from the Lemurian Colony Beneath Mt. Shasta. In: Walton, Bruce. Mount Shasta: Home of the Ancients . Mokelumne Hill, Calif. Health Research, 1986. pp. 78-86. Article first appeared in the New Atlantean Journal, Fall, 1980. This is the story of Bonnie, who "says she is a Lemurian born under the sign of Leo in 1951 in a city called TELOS that was built inside an artificial dome-shaped cavern in the Earth a mile or so beneath Mount Shasta." Contains conversations with Bonnie which cover a wide range of subjects. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS103].
[MS945]. [Lemuria,
in classical antiquity]. In: Hammond, N. G. L. and Scullard, H. H.
The Oxford Classical Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press,
1970. p. 594. Second Edition. The name
"Lemuria" was used by Roman writers in conjunction with an elaborate festival
appeasing the 'Lemures' and other mythological creatures. According to the
Oxford Classical dictionary: "Lemuria, 9, 11, 13 May, on which days apparently
kinless and hungry ghosts, lemures (Wissowa's doubts, PW, s.v. 'Lemuria,' col.
1932, that such a word originally existed seem unjustifiable), were supposed to
prowl about the houses. Ovid (Fasti 5. 419 ff.) describes the ritual of feeding
and getting rid of them, but his assertion (443) that they were addressed as
manes paterni is incredible" (p. 594).
Note
that the name of the primate "Lemur" derives from this earlier Roman
usage. The lemur is a nocturnal animal, and its name associates the animal with
the night time, the time of ghosts and presumably the time of the Roman
"Lemures". In the mid-1800s paleontologists determined that the fossil
record of both Madagascar and India revealed that primate lemurs at one time
lived on both sides of the Indian Ocean. The name "Lemuria" was proposed as the
name for the sunken land bridge or continent separating the two places. This
Lemuria allowed the lemurs to migrate. Later, German zoologist Ernst Haeckel
proposed that perhaps Lemuria was the central place of human evolution from
which the human races spread out like rays. These were all scientific,
non-mystical ideas. Eventually the idea of a mystical Lemuria as a center of the
"root races" entered the occult literature, especially through the Theosophical
Society writings of Madame Blavatsky. Thus there can be said to have been three
separate "Lemurias": that of the ancient Romans, that of the mid-19th Century
paleontological community, and that of the late 19th Century occultists. In 1908
the idea of an occult Lemuria had been applied to California in general, and in
1925 to Mt. Shasta in particular (see Taffinder 1908, Selvius
1925). 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS945].
[MS487]. Harshberberg,
Billie. Palace Domes of Ancient Lost Race on Mount Shasta. In: Five Star
Weekly. Venice, Calif.: May 2, 1936. This Five Star Weekly article appears
to be a rewriting and embellishment of portions of a W. S. CervŽ's 1931 Lemuria,
The Lost Continent of the Pacific.
Note that
according to a 1936 letter from the Rosicrucians written to the Mount Shasta
City Chamber of Commerce, it was the Rosicrucians who were responsible for this
Five Star Weekly article about Mt. Shasta (see "Rosicrucian Order
Presents..." In: Mount Shasta Herald May 28, 1936). 16.
Legends: Lemuria. [MS487].
[MS393]. Lanser,
Edward. A People of Mystery: Are They Remnants of a Lost Race?, Do They
Possess a Fabulous Gold Treasure? In: Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine. Los
Angeles: May 22, 1932. Illustrated by A.L. Ewing. Lanser's article was reprinted
in its entirety in 1933 in Spence The Problem of Lemuria: The Sunken Continent
of the Pacific. London: Mayflower Press. This was one of the
most widely read stories of the 1930s that specifically associated Mt. Shasta
with a colony of Lemurians. Note that Lanser's 1932 article is very
similar in content and style to Selvius's 1925 article "Descendents of
Lemuria..." and very similar to W. S. CervŽ's 1931 Lemuria--The Lost Continent
... The 1925 article mentions the Shasta Limited train experiences, and
all three sources make references both to the 'Ceremony to Guatama' on Mt.
Shasta, and to the telescopes of Edgar Lucien Larkin, leading one to believe
that the 1925, 1931, and 1932 stories were the work of one person or group of
people.
Lanser wrote in 1932 about two
personal trips to Mt. Shasta, the first just a passing-by on the Shasta Limited
train, the second time a trip to explore the mountain. At sunrise on the
observation car of the train, during the first trip he saw the "whole southern
side of the mountain was ablaze with a strange reddish green light." Later,
Lanser asked a conductor about the phenomenon, and was answered "'Lemurians', he
said. 'They hold ceremonials up there." Returning to Mt. Shasta some time
later, Lanser explains that "I motored toward the point of my investigation,
pausing at Weed, a town near Mt. Shasta, for the night. In Weed I discovered
that the existence of a 'mystic village' on Mt. Shasta was an accepted fact.
Businessmen, amateur explorers, officials and ranchers in the country
surrounding Shasta spoke freely of the Lemurian community, and all attested to
the weird rituals that are performed on the mountain-side at sunset, midnight
and sunrise."
Lanser explains that there is
an invisible boundary of a Lemurian settlement, which only "four of five"
explorers have ever penetrated. Lanser also notes that: "The Lemurians have been
seen on various occasions; they have been encountered in the Shasta forest, but
only for a brief glimpse, for they possess the uncanny secret knowledge of the
Tibetan masters and, if they desire, can blend themselves into their
surroundings and vanish. At times they came into the neighboring towns--tall,
barefoot, noble-looking men, with close cropped hair, dressed in spotless white
robes that resemble in style the enveloping garment worn by the high-caste East
Indian women today--to patronize certain stores.....Various merchants in the
vicinity of Shasta report that these white-robed men occasionally come to their
stores. Their purchases are of a peculiar nature. They have bought enormous
quantities of sulphur as well as a great deal of salt. They buy lard in bulk
quantities, for which they bring their own containers, peculiar transparent
bladders. The gay materials and novelties of our modern civilization do not
attract these simple people at all. Their purchases are always paid for with
gold nuggets...They have frequently donated their large gold nuggets to charity.
During the World War, they came forward with generous gifts to the American Red
Cross, and more recently they sent a bag of gold to the fund for sufferers of
the Japanese earthquake..."
Lanser explains
the existence of Lemurians as follows: "Some scientists have long ago declared
that certain of these early people migrated to other parts of the earth before
the continents of Atlantis and Lemuria are supposed to have disappeared beneath
the waters of the ocean and the Lemurians on Shasta are doubtless the
descendents of those early survivors who trekked to the American continent,
possibly South America, the succeeding generations finally moving north to
California. That these Lemurians who live in California are cognizant of the
disaster that befell their ancestors is revealed in the fact that each night, at
midnight throughout the entire year, they perform a ritual of thanksgiving and
adoration to 'Gautama' which is the Lemurian name for America. The chief object
of this midnight ceremony is to celebrate the escape of their forebears from the
doomed Lemuria and their safe arrival in Gautama." 16.
Legends: Lemuria. [MS393].
[MS2064]. Larkin, Edgar L. Edgar Lucien 1847-1924. The Matchless Altar of the Soul, Symbolized as a Shining Cube of Diamond, One Cubit in Dimensions, and Set within the Holy of Holies in All Grand Esoteric Temples of Antiquity. Los Angeles, CA: E.L. Larkin, 1916. ix, 306 p.; front. (port.) plates.; 21 cm. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS2064].
[MS489]. Larkin, Edgar
Lucian 1847-1924. The Atlantides. In: San Francisco Examiner. San
Francisco, Calif.: Dec. 31, 1913. p. 18 [Editorial Page]. This 1913
article shows that Edgar Lucian Larkin was keenly interested in lost continents.
Larkin, who wrote on occasion as a columnist, penned his article in answer to
the question: "Is there any truth in the legend of the lost continent of
Atlantis?" Larkin's long article is broken down into seven sections. The first
section explains how the current time has seen a reawakening of interest in
religion. In the second section he explains that as a teenager he read Plato
with a passion, and has never doubted Plato's account of Atlantis. The third
section paraphrases Frederick Spenser Oliver's Mt. Shasta book (see Oliver
Phylos the Thibetan...)by saying: "The people that we now call Atlantides call
themselves the Poseidii or inhabitants of Poseid....entire buildings of precious
stones."
Larkin then writes of the
famous archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. According to Larkin, Schliemann
discovered at Troy an owl-headed vase which bore the inscription "From King
Chronos of Atlantis."
"The fourth section
tells how Schliemann, on his deathbed, left a sealed letter which was placed in
a bank vault. The letter was only to be opened by someone willing to take a
solemn vow to spend the rest of their life investigating the clues in the
letter. In 1906 Schliemann's son took the vow. He opened the letter and found
that it was about Atlantis.
In the fifth
section Larkin describes how the vase from Atlantis was opened, as instructed in
the letter. Inside was a metal disk of platinum, aluminum, and copper alloy.
Larkin thinks the metals came from Central America. The inscription on one side
of the disk was in an unknown script, while on the other was a Phoenecian
inscription saying: "Issued from the temple of transparent
walls."
Section six explains how a young man
at the foot of Mt. Shasta ran home and told his mother that his hand was writing
and it would not stop. Taking paper, a book was written in intervals. The
writing began in 1883. The book was about
Atlantis.
Section seven explains how Oliver's
mother traded a copy of her son's book for a copy of Larkin's own book entitled
Radiant Energy. Larkin read the Oliver book and was impressed. Of Plato
and Oliver, says Larkin: "Both books, Plato and the dictated book, were on
Atlantis. But the boy's mighty, majestic, imposing, fascinating book gives the
names of the cities and sunken Poseid, and of the temples of gold, alabaster,
platinum, diamonds and countless gems..."
Note
that Selvius in 1925 stated that Larkin published an account of sighting
Lemurians on Mt. Shasta. No such article has yet been located. It may be that
Larkin's 1913 "Atlantides," because it does mention Mt. Shasta, lost continents,
and "....temples of gold...and countless gems," may be in some way the source of
the legend that Larkin himself saw Lemurian temples on Mt. Shasta. That Larkin
saw Lemurian temples on Mt. Shasta was reported by Selvius in 1925, and also by
CervŽ in 1931, and by Lanser in 1932. The Selvius, CervŽ, and Lanser articles
may have been based upon a misinterpretation of this 1913 Larkin "Atlantides"
article. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS489].
[MS1054]. Larkin, Edgar
Lucian 1847-1924. The Lost Continent of Atlantis as Described in Plato's
Dialogues. In: San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, Calif.: June 14, 1914.
Editorial and Dramatic Section, p. 6. col. 1-8. Ideas about "Lost Continents"
were very popular in California long before the Selvius 1925 article first
associated Mt. Shasta with Lemuria. Larkin underscores this interest by
stating in 1914 that: "The interest in Atlantis is now more marked than at any
time since I began replying to questions 47 years ago. In response to many I
will quote first from Plato's Timaeus..."
Note that according to Selvius (see Selvius 1925) Larkin is supposed to have
written an article or articles stating that Larkin himself saw Lemurians at Mt.
Shasta. No article confirming any published article by Larkin mentioning seeing
Mt. Shasta Lemurians has yet been found, though Larkin does mention (see Larkin
1913) reading F. S. Oliver's Mt. Shasta book (see Oliver
1929). 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS1054].
[MS394]. Larkin, Edgar
Lucian 1847-1924. [Lemurians on Mt. Shasta]. In: Spence, Lewis
1874-1955. The Problem of Lemuria: The Sunken Continent of the
Pacific. Mokelume Hill, Calif.: Health Research, 1976. Part of a
reprint of the Edward Lanser 1932 Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine article
about Mt. Shasta. English publication reprinting Edward
Lanser's version of the Larkin-Mt. Shasta story. Larkin's story is told by
Lanser as follows: "Prof. Larkin, with determined sagacity, penetrated the
Shasta wilderness as far as he could--or dared--and then, cleverly, continued
his investigations from a promontory with a powerful long-distance telescope.
What the scientist saw, he reported, was a great temple in the heart of the
mystic village--a marvellous work of carved marble and onyx, rivalling in beauty
and architectural splendour the magnificence of the temples of Yucatan. He saw a
village housing from 600 to 1000 people; they appeared to be industriously
engaged in the manufacture of articles necessary to their consumption, they were
farming in the sunny slopes and glens surrounding the village--with miraculous
results, judging from the astounding vegetation revealed to Prof. Larkin's
spy-glass. He found them to be a peaceful community, evidently contented to live
as their ancient forebears had lived before Lemuria was swallowed up by the
sea (p. 106)."
Note that the Larkin
legend is often retold in a form that Larkin saw Mt. Shasta from Mt. Lowe in Los
Angeles. But none of the earliest articles citing Larkin explicitly state this
as a fact.
Note also that Larkin was
well-known as a writer. In the San Francisco Examiner of Feb. 1, 1920 (Sunday),
Page N9, col. 2-3, appears a photograph of Larkin with the following caption:
"The famous scientist and astronomer, well known as contributor to the Hearst
newspapers, is shown looking through his 'Spinthariscope' at a chart of the
stars in the region about the north celestial pole. The Spinthariscope is an
instrument containing radium chloride mixed with zinc sulphide. The scientist
has recently repeated his belief in the existence of the sunken continent of
Atlantis, thought to have been located in what is now the Atlantic Ocean,
somewhere between Africa and South and Central America." Larkin's articles on
various scientific and literary subjects have appeared in more than a dozen
different magazines, such as the Overland Monthly and Scientific American (see
card file under Larkin, Edgar Lucien., at the California State
Library).
Note too that Larkin's supposed testimony,
as to the existence of Lemurians on Mt. Shasta, was first used to 'prove' the
credibility of the Lemurian myth in an 1925 article by "Selvius" and then in a
1931 book by W. S. CervŽ. Edward Lanser's 1932 article in the L.A. Times is
another instance of the Larkin story being used as corroborative evidence to
bolster the Lemurian-Mt. Shasta idea. However, the entire Larkin story is
probably based on a misreading, by Selvius, of an article Larkin wrote in 1913.
Larkin probably never proposed the telecope story attributed to him (see Larkin
1913, Selvius 1925). 16. Legends: Lemuria.
[MS394].
[MS1086]. Lee, Hector
Haight 1908. There is a Telling, Oct. 21, 1956. Chico,
Calif.: Chico State College, Oct. 21, 1956. Transcript of an episode from a
televised folklore series. A televised episode
about Mt. Shasta. Contains the story of I-E-K-A: "...so they sent out and asked
an old Indian what the Indian name was for the mountain. He said it was I-E-K-A.
Well, their representative went off to the legislature, but when the crucial
moment came he forgot the word the Indian had pronounced. The best he could
remember was Y-re-ka. Asked how to spell it, he said, 'Why, just spell it the
way it sounds.' So it's officially Yreka."
Contains several of the Mt. Shasta legends, including those about the Lemurians
and the I AM religion. Begins with a reference to a Mt. Shasta climbing
party in 1870: "At 11,000 feet all their watches mysteriously stopped, but as
the party came back down, the watches started again at exactly the same
altitude."
Contains references to Professor
Larkin and the Lemuria myth. Note that the author states that in "1913 at Mount
Lowe Observatory, Professor Larkin was looking through his telescope and saw on
Mount Shasta what he reported to be several golden domes." This Larkin
legend is not well verified in any respect; the highly questionable date of 1913
possibly comes from a report, which includes a misreading of a 1913 Larkin
article, by the Lee's students Carrico and Holbrook (see Carrico and Holbrook
1949, and Larkin 1913). 16. Legends: Lemuria.
[MS1086].
[MS2193]. Maier, Mary
Mother Mary and Phylos the Thibetan. Atlantis Speaks Again: by Mother
Mary ; in Collaboration with Phylos-The Thibetan-Elderon,
Holtah-Kemistrus-Zonus-Mol Lang of the Order of Azariah. Hollywood,
CA: M. M. Maier Publishers, 1960. 371 pp. First edition, one of 333
copies of the subscriber's edition. Contains repoductions of the original
manuscript of Frederick Spencer Oliver's 'A Dweller on Two Planets' Contains
photographs of 'Mount Shasta' 'Mary Elizabeth Manley Oliver,' 'chair of
Frederick Spencer Oliver,' 'table of Frederick Spencer Oliver'. This book is
'dedicated to Frederick Spencer Oliver's mother, Mary Elizabeth Manley-Oliver,
whose life was given in service to her son's work, and to all progressive
thinkers everywhere, but especially to the visible and invisible helpers who
have made possible it's presentation to the
world.' A compendium of materials. An important
book contaning unique information about the writing of 'A Dweller on Two
Planets: or The Dividing of the Way,' by Phylos the Thibetan, with Frederick
Spencer Oliver, amanuensis. Contains reproductions of several pages of the
original Oliver manuscript of 'A Dweller...' One of the reproductions shows the
title page of the manuscript, which has at it's bottom the very important
inscription or equation which was left out of the 1905 first edition of 'A
Dweller'. This inscription reads: '26: 17 :: 25.8 + 30 : 24 ' (p. 176) According
to Maier, Mrs. Oliver had deleted the numbers from the published book because it
was thought to be an equation which couldn't be solved by mathematicians. Mrs.
Maier describes how a Mrs. Bense (who, it is explained, was contacted by Phylos
in semi-invisible form) went to Mrs. Oliver and explained that this missing
inscription was the key to much understanding of the esoteric meaning of 'A
Dweller...'.
Contains ostensible photoreproductions
of several pages of the 'Dweller manuscript' (pp. 46-47). Contains
photoreproductions of letters from Frederick Spencer Oliver to his mother, dated
June 1896, (pp. 37-40).
Contains an essay by
Frederick Spencer Oliver entitled: 'Karma as a Cure for Trouble' (pp.
139-143).
Contains an 1897 letter (pp. 328-343)
written by Frederick S. Oliver to W. A. Venter, Nov. 22, 1897 which attempts to
explain and locate a lost manuscript of 'A Dweller..' sent to N.Y. and purported
to have burned in a train wreck on the manuscript's return voyage. Oliver
states: 'Many months ago Phylos informed both myself and Mr. Putnam that from
then on there were evil opponents in his own realm that would make every
possible effort to defeat the appearance of his book. It would seem as if this
train wreck, if by it the MS. is lost, was the crowning effort of the
opposition....And now , O'God. I thank Thee! by all this effort I am come to the
Gates of Gold, and standing in the Gate Azariah, I wait to see the work bring
hope to thousands, peace to many and firm footing on the path of Ages first
pointed me by Phylos' (pp. 331).
Mother Mary Maier
was an important spiritual teacher in the Mount Shasta region during the 1950s
and 1960s. The preface to Atlantis Speaks Again states: "Mother Mary is
the last director of the Order of Directive Biblical Philosophy of
Intensification, the outer organization of the Order of the Azariah Group of the
Master of the Sanctum at Mount Shasta." Apparently a member of Howard Zitko's
group 'The Order of Azariah' (see Zitko: 'An Earth Dweller Return') she later
donned orange robes and was known as the leader of the Shree Shree Provo sect in
Mount Shasta City (see Frank: California's Sacred
Mountain).
Mother Mary Maier writes of Phylos: "I,
Mother Mary, have committed myself to carry on this work to the best of my
ability and to guard against intrusion from destructive forces." (p.
ix).
For a more detailed analysis of Atlantis Speaks
Again, see Frank W. Fox: 'Frederick Oliver and Phylos', pp.
8-13. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS2193].
[MS772]. Mansfield,
Abraham Joseph. The Golden Goddess of the Lemurians. Redding,
Calif.: Abraham Joseph Mansfield, 1970. Third Edition.
Contains a chapter entitled 'The Godly Lemurian Ghosts of Mt. Shasta' (pp.
11-20). Mansfield's friend was on Mt. Shasta in 1931 when a seven foot tall
being appeared and said 'I am a Lemurian---what are you doing here?' Lemurian
caves below Mount Shasta were visited. The story contains elements of time
standing still, radiation used to grow vegetables underground, body-mind
dissociation, and great treasure vaults. This chapter was also published in
Walton, Bruce, editor. Mount Shasta: Home of the Ancients. Mokelume Hill, Calif:
Health Research, 1986, pp. 67-73.
Mansfield's
book also contains chapters about Lemuria, Peter Lassen, Lost Gold Mines, and an
Inca Princess. The book as a whole is hard to define; it appears to be the
product of shear imagination and uncritical legend
jumping. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS772].
[MS65]. Mansfield,
Abraham Joseph. The King of the Lemurians. Redding, Calif.:
the author, 1976. Contains a chapter entitled "The Godly Lemurian Ghosts of Mt.
Shasta" (pp. 11-20). Mansfield's friend was on Mt. Shasta in 1931 when a seven
foot tall being appeared and said "I am a Lemurian--what are you doing here?"
Lemurian caves below Mount Shasta were visited. The story contains elements of
time standing still, radiation used to grow vegetables underground, body-mind
dissociation, and great treasure vaults.
Mansfield's book also contains chapters about Lemuria, Peter Lassen, Lost Gold
Mines, and an Inca Princess. The book as a whole is hard to define; it appears
to be the product of sheer imagination and uncritical legend
jumping. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS65].
[MS698]. Martinelli, Emma. Probing the Mystery of Mt. Shasta. In: The Journal of Borderland Research. March, 1962. Vol. XVIII. No. 2. pp. 12-16. This is the same article which appeared as a letter in Amazing Stories magazine in 1946 (reprinted in Walton 1986), with additions by the author of visits to the mountain in 1952 and 1953. The journal editor adds a postscript about his own 1961 visit to Mt. Shasta. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS698].
[MS101]. Martinelli, Emma. My Strange Experiences at Mt. Shasta. In: Walton, Bruce. Mount Shasta: Home of the Ancients. Mokelumne Hill, Calif. Health Research, 1986. pp. 74-76. Article first appeared as a letter in Amazing Stories, Oct. 1946. The author visits Weed, in 1946, determined to interview the residents for information about the unusual 'mountain people.' 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS101].
[MS460]. Maxwell, Robert. Lemuria - Fact or Fiction? no date. Source: Walton '...visit to the inner cavern colony of Mt. Shasta..' 40. Find List/16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS460].
[MS1088]. [Mount Shasta
Herald]. Rosicrucian Order Presents Chamber with Book on Lemuria, Lost
Continent of the Pacific. In: Mount Shasta Herald. Mt. Shasta, Calif.: May
28, 1936. Consists of reprinted portions of a letter accompanying a gift
copy of W. S. CervŽ's book Lemuria, The Lost Continent of the Pacific. The
letter was sent by the publishers, known as the Rosicrucian Order, to the Mt.
Shasta City Chamber of Commerce. This letter apparently was sent for two
reasons, one to disavow any real factual basis to the Lemurian legend, and two,
to disclaim any responsibility for some tours to Mt. Shasta which had proved to
be hoaxes. The letter also remarks on the movie Lemuria, The Lost... produced by
the Rosicrucians.
The letter states: "We are
oftentimes amused by the rumors that we originated these tales or merely
accepted them as facts. The book merely relates these legends. In the appendix
of this book it refers to our sources of information for the facts and details.
We are no more responsible for the facts than is the publisher who publishes
Anderson's Fairy Tales or the Arabian Nights. The letter finishes with the
statement: "There is a great deal of difference between a book publishing the
legends and tales as such, and definitely stating from the public platform that
these things are so in fact."
A disclaimer
contained in this letter says: "As a further point of information, we would like
to say that there is a society which is responsible for the exaggerated and
ridiculous claims that abound about Mt. Shasta. This society has its quarters in
California, and in lectures throughout the country, it claims that its
headquarters are at Mt. Shasta, from which emanates its instructions, and where
there are conducted many strange rites, etc. Incidentally, that society has even
gone so far as to arrange tours to Mt. Shasta to see these strange ceremonies
and mystical rites, but upon arriving there, on one pretense or another, they
explain away the fact that they are not there." 16.
Legends: Lemuria. [MS1088].
[MS2211]. Oliver, Frederick Spencer. Letter to W. A. Venter, Nov. 22, 1897; Along with Letters to His Mother, June 26 and 23, 1896. In: Mary, Mother. Atlantis Speaks Again. Hollywood, CA: M. M. Maier Publishers, Letter to W. A. Venter, Nov. 22, 1897 (pp. 328-343). Letters to his mother, June 26 and 23, 1896 (pp. 37-40). The letters reveal some of the difficulties and spritual presuppositions behind the publication of 'A Dweller on Two Planets' 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS2211].
[MS157]. Oliver,
Frederick Spencer 1866-1899 and Phylos the Thibetan (spirit). A Dweller
on Two Planets: or, The Dividing of the Way. Los Angeles, Calif.:
Poseid Publishing Company, 1929. Frederick S. Oliver was the 'amanuensis' for
the 'spirit' named 'Phylos the Thibetan.' Possibly first published in 1899,
though the earliest OCLC computer catalog listing is for a 1905
edition. The single most important source of Mt.
Shasta's esoteric legends. This book contains the first published references
linking Mt. Shasta to: 1) a mystic brotherhood; 2) a tunnel entrance to a
secret city inside Mount Shasta; 3) Lemuria; 4) the concept of "I AM"; 5)
"channeling" of ethereal spirits; 6) a panther surprise. Book consists of two
main parts, with a short interlude section about Mt. Shasta entitled: "Seven
Shasta Scenes: Interlude" (pp. 241-248)
Of an
interior tunnel and a secret interior home of a mystic brotherhood within Mount
Shasta, Oliver writes, and note that it is not with the normal vision: "...that
a long tunnel stretches away, far into the interior of majestic Shasta. Wholly
unthought is it that there lie at the tunnel's far end vast apartments, the home
of a mystic brotherhood, whose occult arts hollowed that tunnel and mysterious
dwelling: 'Sach' the name is. Are you incredulous as to these things? Go there,
or suffer yourself to be taken as I was, once! See, as I saw, not with the
vision of flesh, the walls, polished as by jewelers, though excavated as by
giants; floors carpeted with long, fleecy gray fabric that looked like fur, but
was a mineral product; ledges intersected by the boulders, and in their
wonderful polish exhibiting veinings of gold, of silver, of green copper ores,
and maculations of precious stones. Verily, a mystic temple, made afar from the
madding crowd, ..." (p. 248). The above quote comes from an 'editorial'
interlude, entitled 'Seven Shasta Scenes: Interlude' (pp. 241-248) authored by
Oliver himself. This chapter was also published in Walton, Bruce, editor. Mount
Shasta: Home of the Ancients. Mokelume Hill, Calif: Health Research, 1986, pp.
119-123.
A Dweller on Two Planets is a famous
novel of spiritual fiction, and the human author (Frederick S. Oliver) claimed
the story was transmitted from the voice of a noncorporal entity who went by the
name of Phylos (also called Yol Gorro). Oliver states, in a 1899 introduction to
the book, that the transmission and writing was begun in Yreka, California. He
says the book was mostly written within sight of Mount Shasta in 1883-1884 and
finished in 1886. The novel, with an autobiographical tone of voice, combines
the philosophical, occult, and religious concepts of many lands into a narrative
of spiritual wanderings of 'Phylos' first alone, and later with his Chinese
friend 'Quong,' through lands both physical and ethereal, over the rather long
period of about 30 centuries. Quong and Phylos enter into the tunnel at Mt.
Shasta (p. 272).
The novel makes many
references to Atlantis and one reference to Lemuria. Of Lemuria, Phylos says:
"Back of the time of Zailm we gazed upon a scene on the great continent Lemuria
or Lemorus" (p. 408).
Note that several points
of this book were incorporated into the Selvius 1925 article about Mt. Shasta as
the home of Lemurians. Taking just two examples, the large torpedo shaped air
-water ships as drawn and described by Oliver are mentioned in Selvius, and the
Jesus and Gautama reference in Oliver also appears in Selvius. There is very
little doubt that Selvius in 1925, and CervŽ in 1931, borrowed much from
Oliver.
Note that astronomer Edgar Lucian
Larkin, whose name was associated with the telescope sighting of a Lemurian
village on Mt. Shasta (see Selvius 1925), read Oliver's book and corresponded
with Oliver's mother sometime before 1913 (see Larkin 1913).
Oliver's book also contains a passage about a
panther springing upon Phylos and Quong, just prior to their entering a secret
doorway to the tunnel of the secret city within Mount Shasta (pp. 269-275). Note
that there is a similar but different story about a panther at Mount Shasta,
written by GodfrŽ Ray King and published in the book Unveiled Mysteries in 1934
(see King 1939).
Oliver's book also contains the
earliest published reference connecting Mount Shasta to the idea of 'I AM':
"Then these two potentials unite and receive the Spirit, or I AM, which was
always undivided, and which illumined each soul of its pair equally" (p.
412).
Glossary in back of book defines 'Lemurinus,
Lemuria or Lemorus, a continent of which Australia is the largest remant
to-day.' 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS157].
[MS158]. Phylos the
Thibetan (spirit). An Earth Dweller's Return. Milwaukee,
Wis.: Lemurian Press, 1969. First published in 1940 in an edition of 3000
copies. The 1940 book was originally sold at the 'Temple of the Jewelled Cross,'
in Los Angeles. A 1930s' revision of A Dweller on Two
Planets. The editors state: "The revision of A Dweller on Two Planets will
disclose many truths by means of which the blind will receive their sight into
the Science of Being; then those whose eyes have been opened can partake of the
intellectual feasts at the round table of the Lemurian Fellowship" (p. 10).
Introduction states that the book is approved by "Phylos, Isschar, and the
Lemurian-Atlantean group of the Theo-Christic Adepts. These Adepts are located
at Mount Shasta, California. An illustration of the great stone door of Their
Sachem is in this book. The Organization is called the Order of Azariah" (p.
9).
This book, which entirely reinterprets the
original story by proposing that Oliver himself was a reincarnated high
priest who had no recollection of his evil past. This book contains many
esoteric ideas of karma focusing on the idea that the earth is inhabited by
reincarnating Lemurian and Atlantean souls. Mt. Shasta is mentioned many times.
The original A Dweller on Two Planets was supposedly authored by Phylos
(spirit) through the amanuensis Frederick Spencer Oliver sometime around 1884.
The compilers justify their reworking of the original book by stating: "All
knowledge of past events was withheld from the amanuensis until shortly before
his death. When alone with his mother, whom he adored, he gave glimpses of his
thoughts of the past, especially as to whom Phylos had been, also Mainin. He
also told her of the necessity for correcting the manuscript of A Dweller on Two
Planets according to Phylos' later instructions, as much was not correct upon
the subject of matehood. Owing to the observations of one quondam friend, in
particular, other ideas were advanced that were far from the truth. After the
revealment of the cipher problem to the mother of Frederick Spencer Oliver, as
well as to the compiler of this book...together with messages from
Phylos....even from the first acquaintance with the Compiler, the mother was
anxious to have her son's story as Mainin, the Lemurian-Atlantean High Priest.
She believed it would be helpful to other earth dwellers if these corrected
manuscripts could be released as two books...." (pp.
458-459).
Note that one computer datbase
record for this book states that Howard John Zitko (1911-) was its editor.
Also note that a newspaper clipping entitled "Bail of 5,000 for Lemurian"
from the Milwaukee Journal, October 3, 1941, states that Zitko was the
co-founder and leader of the "Lemurian Fellowship" and that he was charged with
selling "Lemurian Temple" bonds in violation of securities law. The paper noted
that the bonds only could be redeemed if the buyer had attained the ranking of a
temple initiate, subject to certain unspecified conditions not explained in the
article. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS158].
[MS1009]. Ramatherio,
Sri. Unto Thee I Grant. San Jose, Calif.: Supreme Grand Lodge
of AMORC, 1948. First published in 1925 by the Oriental Literature Syndicate,
San Francisco, Calif. Sri Ramatherio was the pseudonym of H. Spencer Lewis,
founder of AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis).
The manuscript translation of Unto Thee I Grant was one of a group of
donated documents which stimulated the Rosicrucian publishers to investigate the
idea of Lemuria, and which eventually led to the publication of the 1925 and
1931 AMORC works linking Mt. Shasta to Lemuria (see Selvius 1925, CervŽ 1974).
Unto the I Grant is not about Mt. Shasta nor about Lemuria, but since the
book was mentioned and discussed in both Selvius's 1925 "Descendants of Lemuria"
and in CervŽ's Lemuria: Lost Continent of the Pacific, one might assume
that it would be about Lemuria. Instead, the book is about the philosophical
teachings contained in an ancient non-Tibetan manuscript found in a Tibetan
archive.
As far as the donation of rare
manuscripts is concerned, the introduction to the 1925 Unto the I Grant
gives a more complete explanation of the circumstances surrounding the donation
than does the publisher's preface to the 1931 Lemuria: Lost Continent of the
Pacific. Both discussions pertain to the development of the Mt.
Shasta-Lemuria legend in so far as the donation was the catalyst which led the
publisher to research the legend of Lemuria, and this research resulted in the
1925 "Descendants of Lemuria" the very first published work to state that
Lemurians lived at Mt. Shasta. Note that in all likelihood "Sri
Ramatherio," "Selvius," and "W. S. CervŽ" were all pseudonyms of H.
Spencer Lewis. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS1009].
[MS98]. Robbins, Tom. The Clock People of Mt. Shasta . In: Walton, Bruce. Mount Shasta: Home of the Ancients. Mokelumne Hill, Calif. Health Research, 1986. pp. 59-60. This story is loosly adapted from the novel 'Even Cow Girls Get the Blues,' by the well-known writer Tom Robbins. The story of a northeast California 'tribe' who fled S.F. to northeastern California after the earthquake of 1906. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS98].
[MS1087]. [Rosicrucian Society]. The Magic Dwellers of Mt. Shasta Mystical Ceremonies Explained. [Rosicrucian Society], 1931? Publisher's publicity brochure for W. S. Cerve's Lemuria - The Lost Continent of the Pacific. One page, folding. Contains several references to the weird happenings at Mt. Shasta. Contains statements such as: "You will learn that the strange lights reported by many over Mt. Shasta were not due to material phenomena but were the results of certain profound mystical ceremonies being performed." 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS1087].
[MS1117]. [Rosicrucian Society]. [Lemurian mystic tour hoax]. In: Rosicrucian Digest. Aug., 1935. Vol. 13. p. 267. An editorial, from the publishers who first published a Mt. Shasta Lemuria connection (see Selvius 1925), explaining that those who believe in the "fraudulent mystical appeal" of certain self-proclaimed mystics who claim to have discovered the secret temples on Mt. Shasta will be disappointed. The naive believer will lose time and money as well." 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS1117].
[MS111]. Sanders, Garth and Doerr, P. Little Lemurians and the Shasta Ruby. In: Walton, Bruce. Mount Shasta: Home of the Ancients. Mokelumne Hill, Calif. Health Research, 1986. pp. 111-113. First appeared in the Redding Searchlight, May 4, 1964. States that Mount Shasta and Lemuria were discussed on a nationwide Art Linkletter television show in 1964, causing many letters to be written to the Weed Chamber of Commerce. Various humorous and interesting anecdotes by Weed and Mount Shasta residents are also quoted here. The gem ruby was discovered by Paul Doerr on the slopes of Mount Shasta, unfortunately it was later shattered, but the parts are now in Lawrence's Mystery Village Museum. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS111].
[MS766]. Santesson, Hans Stefan. Understanding Mu: with a Never-before-published Essay by James Churchward. New York: Warner Paperback Library, 1974. First published in 1970. The author draws attention to the fact that the idea of a legendary continent of Lemuria has became mixed up with the idea of a legendary continent of Mu. For example the author states that: "The following pages represent an attempt to sum up what are generally referred to as Colonel James Churchward's theories about Mu, the sunken continent in the Pacific known as Lemuria to Theosophists" (p. 9). The author also states that: "If you accept the concept that there was at one time a continent, now submerged, in the Pacific--not the Lemuria adopted by the Theosophists but instead James Churhward's Mu--you must also, in passing, accept the possibility that what we think of as the Garden of Eden was not located in the valley of the Euphrates but instead in this selfsame Mu, 'The Motherland of Man' " (p. 11). 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS766].
[MS822]. Sclater,
Philip Lutley 1829-1913. Mammals of Madagascar [origin of the name
Lemuria]. Quarterly Journal of Science . April, 1864. pp. 213-219. English
journal published in London. "I should propose the name
Lemuria!" - so states the reknowned and prolific English zoologist Philip Lutley
Sclater in 1864. He was referring to his hypohesis that there existed at one
time an immense continent which could account for the migration of lemurs
between India and Madagascar. His deductions were based on the knowledge that
there were fossils remains of lemurs in India, and that there were living lemurs
in Madagascar. This proposed continent later was adopted by Haeckel as a posible
source of the human race, and by the end of the nineteenth century spiritualist
theories had moved the location of Lemuria to the Pacific Ocean. The concluding
paragraph of the article is as follows: "To conclude therefore, granted the
hypothesis of the derivative origin of species, the anomolies of the
Mammal-fauna of Madagascar can best be explained by supposing that, anterior to
the existence of Africa in its present shape, a large continent occupied parts
of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean stretching out towards (what is now) America on
the west, and to India and its islands on the east; that this continent was
broken up into islands, of which some became amalgameted with the present
continent of Africa, and some possibly with what is now Asia-and that in
Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands we have existing relics of the great
continent, for which as the original focus of the 'stirps Lemurum' I should
propose the name Lemuria!"
For an excellent short
biography of Sclater (which includes a few paragarphs of admiration by C. Hart
Merriam)see: G. Brown Goode. Bibliography of Writings of Philip Lutley Sclater,
1844 -1896. Bulletin No. 49. United States National Museum, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington: GPO, 1896.
Note that
Sclater's theories presage the modern theories of plate tectonics. 16. Legends:
Lemuria. [MS822].
[MS905]. Scott-Elliot,
W. The Story of Atlantis and The Lost Lemuria. London: The
Theosophical Publishing House London Inc., 1972. Reprint. The Lost Lemuria first
printed in 1904, and The Story of Atlantis first printed in
1896. The Lost Lemuria was an
influential book in that it helped establish an occult interpretation of the
idea of a Lemurian continent. First published in 1904 it was a major link
in the chain of Theosophical Society books and articles about Lemuria leading
from H. P. Blavatsky (1877) to Scott-Elliott (1904) to Rudolf Steiner (1911).
Note that neither California nor Mt. Shasta are mentioned as a part of Lemuria
in any of the Theosophical books. Nonetheless, the occult Lemuria as defined by
the Theosophists was later to be applied to Mt. Shasta (see Selvius
1925).
From the Foreword: "The object of this
paper is not so much to bring forward new and startling information about the
lost continent of Lemuria and its inhabitants, as to establish by the evidence
obtainable from geology and from the study of the relative distribution of
living and extinct animals and plants, as well as from the observed processes of
physical evolution in the lower kingdoms, the facts stated in the Secret
Doctrine and in other works with reference to these now submerged lands."
Two maps are included with the work.
The author adds
at the close of the book several statements of exotic Theosophical beliefs: "In
the case we are considering-the founding of the Fourth Root Race-it was one of
the Adepts from Venus who undertook the duties of Manu. Naturally he belonged to
a very high order, for it must be understood that the Beings who came from the
Venus system as rulers and teachers of our infant humanity did not all stand at
the same level. It is this circumstance which furnishes a reason for the
remarkable fact that may, in conclusion, be stated-namely, that there existed in
Lemuria a Lodge of Initiation" (p. 106). 16. Legends:
Lemuria. [MS905].
[MS498]. Scott, John P.
The Mystery of Mount Shasta. In: The Rosicrucian Magazine. Jan., 1936.
Vol. 28. pp. 8-11. Adds a new interdimensionality element to the Mt. Shasta
Lemurian legend. The author visited Mt. Shasta during the height of the
Lemurian-Mt. Shasta controversy following the 1931 publication of W. S. Cerve's
Mt. Shasta-related Lemuria: Lost Continent of the Pacific. After talking
to local residents and visiting the mountain, the author rationally rejects the
existence of walking and talking real-life Lemurians. Nonetheless he then
proceeds to the less obvious interdimensionality of the Lemurians. He says:
"There are no storekeepers in the vicinity who have ever exchanged merchandise
for gold nuggets with any strange inhabitants of this mountain. There are no
Lemurian temples or ruins on the mountain....we will perhaps surprise our
readers in what we have to say in conclusion...these ancient people are not on
the physical plane, nor are their temples! We think that many earthbound spirits
from the old civilization which once existed in this locality are still there,
held closely bound to the earth for centuries by their materialistic ideas. Mt.
Shasta seems to us to be a so-called 'sensitive spot,' in which it is easier to
contact those on the other planes than most other
places..."
Note that the Rosicrucians' own magazine,
which ten years earlier had begun establishing the Mt. Shasta-Lemurian legend
(see Selvius 1925), has kept alive the legend of Mt. Shasta's Lemurians.
Sceptics are kept at bay by denying the possibility for ordinary people to see
Lemurians. Now only people who are sensitive enough can experience Lemurians.
Thus the myth will never die as long as sensitive people say Lemurians
exist.
Also note that there exists a nearly
contemporaneous letter, running somewhat counter to the claims of Scott,
written in May 1936 by the Rosicrucians and sent to the Mt. Shasta Chamber of
Commerce. In that letter the Rosicrucians deny the reality of the Lemurians, and
compare their 1931 book about Lemurians at Mt. Shasta to a book of fairy tales,
not really to be believed in (see "Rosicrucian Order Presents Chamber with Book
on 'Lemuria...'" In Mount Shasta Herald May 28, 1936). 16. Legends:
Lemuria. [MS498].
[MS611]. Selvius.
Descendants of Lemuria: A Description of an Ancient Cult in America. In:
Mystic Triangle. Aug., 1925. Vol. 3. pp. 113-114. Also reprinted in the
Rosicrucian Digest. May, 1931. Vol. 9. pp. 495-497. Note
that this 1925 two-page article is the singlemost important document in the
establishment of the modern Mt. Shasta-Lemuria myth. As Selvius says: "...the
facts revealed here for the first time might have remained concealed for many
more years" (p. 113). Most but not all of this article was incorporated six
years later in W. S. CervŽ's Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific.
Although it is not known for a fact, it appears from the similarity of the
material that "Selvius" and "CervŽ" were one and the same
person.
This entire article is about Mt.
Shasta. The author introduces his subject as follows: "Nestled at the foot of a
partially extinct volcano, protected from the hot sun of mid-day and the
chilling breezes of the Pacific by the towering mountain there exists the
strangest mystical village in the Western Hemisphere, without equal, perhaps, in
the whole world. The last descendants of the ancient Lemurians, the first
inhabitants of this earth, find seclusion, protection and peace, in this unique
village of their own creation" (p. 113). Prof. Edgar Lucian Larkin, the
Shasta Limited train, the Ceremony of Adoration to Guatama, the use of gold
nuggets, and other references, all familiar to readers of the 1931 CervŽ book,
will be found in this earlier 1925 article.
Selvius himself was of course aware of the preparations for the later book, and
says: "Much more could be said in very positive terms about the Lemurians in
California, but these facts must be reserved for the book contemplated by the
Oriental Literature Syndicate, whose agreement with the authorities responsible
for the authentic matter the book will contain, make it impossible to reveal
them at this time" (p. 114).
Note that some
aspects of the 1925 article seem to have been borrowed from the circa 1899 Mt.
Shasta book Phylos the Thibetan: A Dweller on Two Planets, by Frederick S.
Oliver. In particular, the very same boats as illustrated in Oliver's book
are discussed by Selvius: "Many testify to having seen the strange boat, or
boats, which sail the Pacific ocean, and then rise at its shore and sail through
the air to drop again in the vicinity of Shasta" (Selvius, p. 114). The mention
of "Guatama" as used by Oliver in 1899 also seems to be the source of the
"ceremony to Guatama" written about in 1925 by
Selvius.
It is important to the history of this
folklore to note that Professor Edgar Lucian Larkin, a well-known science writer
for the Hearst newspapers, in 1913 wrote an Atlantis lost continent article
about Oliver's 1899 Mt. Shasta book, and Larkin in 1913 mentions the "temples of
gold, alabaster..." in reference to not Mt. Shasta but instead in reference to
Oliver's 1899 "Atlantis." When Selvius in 1925 mentions Larkin's telescopic
viewing of the "temple" on Mt. Shasta, it may have come from a misreading of
Larkin's 1913 article. In any event the 1925 Selvius article begins the
tradition of using Prof. Edgar Lucian Larkin as proof of the existence of a
Lemurian village on Mt. Shasta. Selvius was probably using Oliver's 1899 book,
and Larkin's 1913 article about Oliver's book, as source material in 1925. Thus
Oliver, Larkin, and Selvius are the key links to the modern Mt. Shasta Lemuria
Legend.
An entire paragraph was devoted to Larkin;
because it is historically the first use of Larkin's name as proof of Mt.
Shasta's Lemuria village, it is presented here in full: "Even no less a careful
investigator and scientist than Prof. Edgar Lucin Larkin, for many years
director of Mt. Lowe Observatory, said in newspaper and magazine articles that
he had seen, on many occasions, the great temple of this mystic village, while
gazing through a long-distance telescope. He finally learned enough facts to
warrant his announcement that it was the last vestige of the works of the
Lemurians" (p. 113).
There are details in this
Selvius 1925 article which appear to have been reworked and elaborated upon in
the 1931 CervŽ book. For example, Selvius writes in 1925 that: "Occasionally,
they have purchased goods of an unusual kind in the stores, always offering in
payment a bag of gold nuggets of far greater value than the articles purchased.
They have no need of money and manufactures; they produce and grow within their
own village all that four or five hundred men, women and children require" (p.
113). In 1931 CervŽ wrote "...gold nuggets of far greater value than the article
purchased, and they have refused to accept any change....those who have seen
some of them at their mid-night ceremony around the fire claim that they have
seen the silhouettes of some four or five hundred figures, and this number
represents only a fraction of those grouped on one side of the fire." Clearly
the 1931 material is an elaboration of the 1925
material.
As another example of elaboration,
note that Selvius describes the Mt. Shasta Lemurians: "Various members of the
community, garbed, as was their official representative, in pure white,
gray-haired, barefoot and very tall, have been seen on the highways and in the
streets near Shasta." (p. 113). This description is not so different from the
later 1931 CervŽ description which stated "...have been seen on the highways
unexpectedly, garbed in pure white and in sandals, with long curly hair, tall
and majestic in appearance,..." Many more examples could serve to show the
relationship between the 1925 article and the 1931
book.
Note that the 1925 Selvius article was
published in a Rosicrucian magazine of limited circulation. Today even a copy of
the article is quite difficult to find. But the CervŽ book is still in print and
has been quite popular ever since 1931. Although the 1925 Selvius article was
the essential 20th century source of the Mt. Shasta Lemurian legend, it was
really the 1931 CervŽ book which is responsible for the legend's widespread
popularity. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS611].
[MS742]. Spence, Lewis 1874-1955. Atlantis in America. 1925. Spence discusses the continent of Lemuria. The date of 1925 is perhaps significant, for it is the same year that the first Mt. Shasta-Lemuria article appeared (see Selvius 1925). Spence in 1933 reprinted the 1932 Lanser article which was based on Selvius's 1925 and CervŽ's 1931 book (see Lanser 1932, Spence The Problem of Lemuria 1976). 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS742].
[MS391]. Spence, Lewis
1874-1955. The Problem of Lemuria: The Sunken Continent of the
Pacific. Mokelume Hill, Calif.: Health Research, 1976. Reprint. First
published in England in 1933 by the Mayflower Press. The
1930s saw a number of books and articles containing information about the
Lemurians of Mt. Shasta. The present book, originally published in England in
1933, helped spread the Mt. Shasta Lemurian myth overseas.
The author states in his introduction that
"The proof that a native white race once dwelt in the Pacific area and that its
vestiges are still to be found there, is, I am convinced, of the highest moment
to the whole study of a difficult question" (p. 8).
Several unorthodox anthropological theories
of human evolution are presented, and archaeological remains such as the
monuments of Easter Island are given as evidence of the existence of the
Lemurian race. The great naturalist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (see Haeckel) is
quoted on the theory of Lemuria. Spence quotes extensively from the L.A. Times
1932 article of Edward Lanser (see Lanser 1932), which is about both Lanser's
and Larkin's purported Lemurian contact experiences at Mt. Shasta (see also
Selvius 1925, and CervŽ 1931). 16. Legends:
Lemuria. [MS391].
[MS950]. Steiner,
Rudolf 1861-1925. Atlantis and Lemuria. Mokelumne Hill,
Calif.: Health Research., 1963. Translated from the German. Photo-reprint of the
English translation edition published in London in 1923 by the Anthroposophical
Company. A. F. Eichorn's The Mount Shasta Story
mentions Rudolf Steiner's The Submerged Continents of Atlantis and Lemuria as
one of the five most important books for understanding the occult aspects of Mt.
Shasta (see Eichorn, p. 1). The Submerged Continents... was published in London
in 1911 by the Theosophical Society, in an edition of 241 pages. The 1911
edition is very rare and has apparently never been reprinted. It is assumed that
Eichorn was referring to the later book, entitled Atlantis and Lemuria, of 131
pages and published in London in 1923 by Steiner's Anthroposophical Society
Company. Steiner had previously been a member of the Theosophical Society but
had left that organization to found his own
group.
Steiner prefaces his 1923 book by
explaining that his method of historical writing is based on reading the
ethereal Akashic Records: "Those who have enlarged their field of knowledge are
no longer dependent on external evidences where past events are concerned. They
can see that which is not sensibly evident, yet which time cannot destroy. And
so, from available sources of history we can pass on to those which are
imperishable. Such history as this is written in very different letters from
those which record the every-day events of past times, for this is Gnosis--known
in anthroposophical speech as the Akashic Records" (p. 8).
Steiner acknowledges the work of Scott-Elliot
(see Scott-Elliot 1973) and then goes on to talks about the "root races," the
laws of Manu, and other occult subjects. Volcanoes do enter into the picture,
for the author wrote: "Lemuria was very storm tossed, and this earth had
by no means attained to the state of density which has distinguished it in later
days. Volcanic forces were in action everywhere beneath its thin outer crust,
and greater or lesser streams of fire were to found constantly breaking forth.
Great volcanoes were to be found in a state of active eruption, so that--in the
case of all work that was done the people had to make provision against being
overtaken by this fiery element....But it was to the activity of these volcanic
fires that Lemuria owed its destruction" (p.
65).
The dates of Steiner's Lemurian books,
1911 and 1923, are significant for they help establish a link of continuity of
the occult Lemurian legend which apparently began with Madame H. P. Blavatsky
around 1887. She appropriated the earlier scientific evolutionary and geological
Lemurian theories of Sclater, Haeckel, and others. After Blavatsky it was W.
Scott-Elliot who published in 1904 a Theosophical Society book entitled The Lost
Lemuria and then in 1911 Steiner published his Submerged Continents... A 1908
article by Taffinder suggested California was the last remnant of Lemuria, but
it was not until 1925 that anyone published an account of Mt. Shasta as a home
for the Lemurians (see Selvius 1925). 16. Legends:
Lemuria. [MS950].
[MS737]. Taffinder,
Adelia H. A Fragment of the Ancient Continent of Lemuria. In: Overland
Monthly. 1908. Vol. 52. pp. 163-167. Important article because it is the first
published account linking the idea of Lemuria with California. Mt. Shasta is not
mentioned.
Taffinder presents a more or less
coherent theory of the stages of man's evolution using as proof scientific and
unscientific accounts of the great pan-Pacific Lemuria and its inhabitants.
California has 'remained as the only monument in this part of the world to
testify to the ancient grandeur of the land and the high civilization to which
it gave birth' (p. 164).
The evolutionary
theories of eminent professional naturalists including Sclater, Wallace,
Serviss, Bruce, Haeckel, and Huxley are mixed up with the occult theories of
Blavatsky, Besant, and Scott-Elliot. The author states that: 'Our early Lemurian
ancestors are described as having been gigantic in height and correspondingly
broad, possessing tremendous power, attaining the height of 60 feet. The later
Lemurians averaged from 12 to 15 feet' (p. 166). The giant statues on Easter
Island are taken as evidence of the size of the
Lemurians.
The author postulates, following
the authority of Scott-Elliot, that the degraded remnants of Lemuria still
inhabit the earth, and may 'be recognized in the aboriginal Australians
and Tasmanians, the Andaman Islanders, some hill tribes of India, the Tierra del
Fuego, the Bushman of Africa....' (p. 166).
But an advanced civilization of Lemuria is thought to have existed, and
according to the author 'Occult Science postulates that highly evolved beings
from the planet Venus, not only guided and taught the primitive denizens of
Lemuria, but assisted in improving the racial type' (p.
166).
Note that this article, with its
Theosophical teachings and extension of the Lemurian Myth to California, may
have been part of the research material involved in the creation of the Mount
Shasta Lemuria myth as presented by Selvius in 1925 and by CervŽ in 1931. Both
writers, who in all probability were one and the same person, leave clues that
they have read Oliver's 1886 book, Taffinder's 1908 article, and Larkin's 1913
article. Thus by tracing the line from Oliver to Selvius, with a side line
adding Taffinder 1908 and Larkin 1913, one arrives at Selvius in 1925 and CervŽ
in 1931 establishing the Mt. Shasta Lemurian legend. 16. Legends: Lemuria.
[MS737].
[MS100]. Thevenin, Rene
1877. A Race of Supermen Who Perished 20,000 Years Ago?: Evidence Which
Suggests There was a Powerful and Highly Civilized People Who Understood Secrets
of Nature Which Were Only Recently Rediscovered by Modern Man- Where They Lived-
What Destroyed Them. In: The American Weekly: Magazine Section of the San
Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, Calif.: Jan. 10, 1932. pp. 1-2. Chapter 9 of
a series. 'by Prof. Rene Thevenin, The Distinguished French
Scientist.' Front page feature, Jan. 10. 1932, story about
Lemuria, but does not mention California or Mt. Shasta. Nonetheless it is one of
the numerous 1930s Lemuria articles and books by different authors published
after Selvius in 1925, and Cerve in 1931 (see Selvius 1925, Cerve 1931, Lanser
1932, Spence 1933). The article serves to demonstrate the 1930s public interest
in lost continents.
Rene Thevenin's article
contains a mix of ideas centering upon the idea of a "missing island continent"
from which the many races of mankind have spread. The author also indirectly
suggests that the wisdom of the people of the lost continent of Lemuria probably
had much in common with the religious realization embodied in such mysteries as
the Sphinx, the Pyramids, and the Tibetan sacred mantras. Note that The American
Weekly magazine of the 1930s was devoted to unusual and far-fetched
stories. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS100].
[MS971]. Thevenin, Rene 1877. Les Pays Legendaires devant la Science. Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France, 1946. OCLC # 6971870. May help to explain the myth of Lemuria (see Thevenin 1932) vis-a-vis California. 16. Legends: Lemuria/40. Find List. [MS971].
[MS146]. Thomas, Eugene E. 1894. Brotherhood of Mt. Shasta. Los Angeles, Calif.: Devross, 1974. Reprint of the 1946 first edition. One of the important books of spiritual fiction that has helped establish the idea that Mt. Shasta is the home of a secret mystical brotherhood, a brotherhood descended in part from the lost continent of Lemuria. Contains descriptions such as: "In a moment the Master said: 'Donald Crane, thou hast sought for hidden knowledge. Thy desires have brought thee hither to be initiated into our Sacred Brotherhood. When thou didst find our retreat, thy joy was great. Thou hast trod the Sacred Highway no mortal man hath trod since the Great Unseen Power gave it a roof, except those individuals who have been especially privileged to do so" (p. 52). The author narrates the protagonist's victory over the lower self through seven mystical steps; such self mastery enables hero Donald Crane to join the ancient Brotherhood of Mt. Shasta. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS146].
[MS261]. Towbin, Laura Newman. The Lemurians of Mount Shasta. Mount Shasta, Calif.: Shastasong Publications, Apr., 1987. Seven page typewritten publication. An uncritical account of the "very conscious, very highly evolved" Lemurians. The author explains how in another dimension that: "The large cinder cone, known as Black Butte, is the primary telecommunications center which the Lemurians use as their connecting point between your realm, their realm, the Space Visitors, elementals, and the Angelic Realms" (p. 3). 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS261].
[MS1157]. Victor,
Frances Fuller. Atlantis Arisen. Philadelphia, Pa.: J.
B. Lippincott Company, 1891. Tourist guide to mainly Washington and Oregon,
though the author describes the passage by train up the Sacramento Canyon:
"Then, again, up the ca–on we catch a glimpse of Mount Shasta, with its massive
bulk divided into triple peaks piercing the sky at fourteen thousand four
hundred and forty feet,-shining white with a blue sky over it" (p. 170). The
author mentions the town of Sisson, present Mt. Shasta City, and its views
of Mount Shasta. Incidentally, she informs the reader of the palindrome "Yreka
Bakery" discovered on a passing sign (p. 170).
The
author was interested in geology and described many geological formations and
rocks seen during her travels. On the last page of the book she says, and more
as metaphor than as fact: "If America is the Atlantis of Plato, or its
substitute, as some believe, its west coast is the oldest, or that portion which
was first elevated, as geology proves. It is also, as we know, the last to be
brought under development....Henceforward man's effort will be to restore to
earth on this favored soil the glories of the buried continent, and to
substitute for Atlantis lost, Atlantis Arisen" (p. 412). Not an occult book.
Published in 1891 it is nonetheless one of the first books to both mention Mt.
Shasta and link the idea of a lost continent with the geology of the West
Coast. 16. Legends: Lemuria. [MS1157].
Geology ~ Environment ~ Native Americans ~ Folklore ~ History ~ Art ~ Literature
Recreation ~ Maps ~ Mount Shasta Collection
~ Bibliography ~ Lesson Plans ~ About Project