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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
Helena Blavatsky
Thomas Sheridan & Neil McDonald
Thomas Sheridan & Neil McDonald are the authors of Atlantis: An Empire Lost and Found [2070] in which they attempt to associate the megalithic monuments of the eastern Atlantic seaboard with Atlantis. In particular, they are in awe of the sophistication of the megaliths of the Orkneys and the ongoing discoveries being made there. I agree that they are impressive, but there is no evidence to link them with Atlantis. Such speculation regarding the megalith builders is nothing new, so I let it pass. Additionally, the book lacks both a Bibliography and an Index.
However, speculation is okay, but a distortion of facts is unacceptable. The authors’ speculation continued later with the suggestion that the round towers of Ireland “may well indicate artefacts of an Atlantean civilisation.” To support this contention they claim that in his 1834 book, The Round Towers of Ireland [0124], Henry O’Brien “proposed that the towers were constructed by survivors of an Atlantean-style civilisation, and these had become known in time as the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology.” To be clear, O’Brien never once mentioned either Plato or Atlantis. Muddying the waters further, the theories of Phillip Callahan regarding the towers and paramagnetism are added to the mix.
When I found that Sheridan & McDonald liberally cited sources such as Blavatsky, Steiner and Cayce, I realised that this book had no real value for me and abandoned it.
Thule Society
The Thule Society emerged just over a century ago, as an extreme nationalistic German secret society called Germanenorden was founded and after a few years, a schism in its ranks led to the Munich branch adopting the cover name of Thule-Gesellschaft. Some of its members sought to link Thule with Atlantis and the Aryans with the Atlanteans using some of the ideas of Helena Blavatsky and Jean-Silvain Bailly(a).
The Thule-Gesellschaft (Thule Society), originally the Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum (“Study Group for Germanic Antiquity”), was a German occultist and völkisch group founded by Felix Niedner in 1910(c). Other sources name Rudolf von Sebottendorff as the founder(d).
Karl Harrer, a member of the Thule Society along with the far-right politician Anton Drexler were founders of the German Workers Party (DAP) in 1919, two years later it changed its name to Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, better known as the Nazi Party(b). The Thule Society faded with the establishment of the DAP, although there was a failed attempt to revive it in 1933.
Claims that most leading Nazis had been members of the Thule Society seem to be a gross exaggeration, having only had Rudolf Hess as a member for a brief period, although it is claimed that other high-ranking Nazis such as Göring and Himmler were also members, there is no evidence to support this claim.
History Professor Peter Staudenmeier offers a more sober view of the Thule Society than that portrayed in many popular books today. He points out that “the short-lived Thule Society, which gained brief notoriety in the aftermath of the First World War, is frequently portrayed as a paradigmatic example of the ‘secret societies’ that supposedly gave birth to the Nazi party. While the organisation was indeed secretive, and its modest membership did include several figures who went on to become leading Nazis, it was not an occult order……………the Thule Society was in reality a political organisation committed to Right-wing radicalism, not esoteric machinations. Aside from spreading antisemitic propaganda, its chief activities consisted of militant confrontations with the Left in the Munich area. Hitler had nothing to do with the group.”(d)
(a) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_vril08.htm
(b) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Society
(c) https://occultthirdreich.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/the-thule-gesellschaft/
(d) The Nazis as occult masters? It’s a good story but not history | Aeon Ideas
Lawton, Ian *
Ian Lawton (1959- ) is an English researcher focused on ancient history and spiritual philosophy. He is probably best known as the co-author with Chris Ogilvie-Herald of Giza: The Truth [1690], which offers a sober forensic review of all the many and widely varied theories relating to the ancient structures on the Giza Plateau. In it, Lawton was highly critical of Robert Bauval‘s Orion Correlation Theory (OCT) both in the book (chapter 9)(d) and in open correspondence between them.
However, Lawton was at the receiving end of criticism from the late John Anthony West in 2000, when West published an article in Atlantis Rising magazine that ended with a scornful “The point is that the facile assurances given by Ogilvie-Herald/Lawton endorsing the orthodox view are illegitimate, their exclusion of contrary, genuinely informed opinion is typical of their selective bogus scholarship, and their long-winded acoustic levitation hypothesis is pure speculation and self-contradictory besides. We still don’t know how the pyramids were built/ Period. Full stop.”(e)
Two years later Ogilvie-Herald co-authored Tutankhamun [1898] with Andrew Collins.
Lawton has also been highly critical of the claims of the late Zechariah Sitchin(b) and his book Mesopotamia: The Truth [1751], he returns to the subject.
Lawton’s second book, Genesis Unveiled [1691], has been described as containing “remarkable new insights into the spirituality of the pre-flood human race”. Chapter 13 takes a somewhat generous view of Blavatsky and Theosophy(c).
He subsequently made changes(a) to the content and, in my opinion, opportunistically re-titled it as Atlantis: The Truth! In it Lawton has focused on prediluvian races, citing, with reservations, the work of Stephen Oppenheimer, Arysio dos Santos and Frank Joseph, which when added to Lawton’s research, he concludes that “it’s nevertheless interesting that all four of us have independently arrived at the same conclusion about the broad whereabouts of any forgotten race.” He argues that the location of such a race was in the general region of Sunda and Sahul Shelves.
(a) Atlantis: The Truth | Ian Lawton (archive.org) *
(b) Mesopotamia: The Truth | Ian Lawton (archive.org) *
(c) Atlantis: The Truth | Ian Lawton (archive.org) *
(d) Giza the Truth | Ian Lawton | Chris Ogilvie-Herald (archive.org) *
(e) Atlantis Rising magazine #23 http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At
Sirius *
Sirius is a binary star in the constellation Canis Major and the brightest star in the night sky and is expected to remain so for the next 210,000 years. In relative terms, it is a near neighbour of ours.
One wild theory speculates that Sirius and our Sun had once been binary partners(i).
Many people of my vintage were first made aware of Sirius when Robert Temple published his bestselling The Sirius Mystery [735]. In which he supported the idea of extraterrestrial influence on human cultural development, citing as evidence, the ‘knowledge’ of the Dogon people regarding the Sirius star system before verification by modern astronomy. This idea has now come under serious attack with the claim that Sirius C does not even exist(a). The controversy is still raging as the Bad Archaeology website demonstrates(b) as well as an article from the Armagh Planetarium website(c). Jason Colavito has also added a few critical comments regarding the knowledge of the Dogon(j). Colavito also reveals(k) that Arthur M. Young (1905-1995), the helicopter pioneer and Robert Temple’s mentor also “believed he had been in contact with extraterrestrials from Sirius who served as the creator gods of Egypt.”
Two decades ago, Laird Scranton wrote in Atlantis Rising magazine(q) that, “the answers to Temple’s mysteries can no longer be reasonably found in the Sirius question itself because the debate has succeeded in casting doubt on so many of Temple’s assertions. However, there are many other fascinating aspects of the Dogon religion and cosmology not entangled in this debate which, due to the continuing glare of the star Sirius, seem to have been overlooked for study. Some of the most promising of these are the Dogon symbols relating to the structure of matter.” and the blub for his book Hidden Meanings [1916] added that “The mythology of the Dogon tribe of Mali describes how their one true god Amma created all of the matter of the universe. But the system defined by these tribal myths bears a striking resemblance to the actual scientific structure of matter, starting with the atom and continuing all the way down to the vibrating threads of string theory. Moreover, many of the Dogon words, symbols and rituals used to describe this structure are a close match for those found in the myths of ancient Egypt and in the daily rituals of Judaism.“
For the ancient Egyptians Sirius, known to them as Sothis, had great importance, as the heliacal rising of Sirius coincided with the summer solstice which heralded the next flooding of the Nile. They also associated Sirius with the goddess Isis. John deSalvo claims in his list of old pyramid theories(s) that “Several Arabian writers have seen a mystic correlation between the design of the pyramid and the revolutions of Sirius, the judge-god of the dead.”
A 2008 report from the University of Hamburg said “scientists led by Helmut Ziegert had found remains of a 10th-century-B.C. palace at Axum-Dungur (Ethiopia) under the palace of a later Christian king. There was evidence the early palace had been torn down and realigned to the path of the star Sirius.”(l)
Additionally, it is also suggested that the earlier structure was the palace of the legendary Queen Of Sheba. Today, Axum is claimed by the Ethiopian Church to be the current home of the Ark of the Covenant, a claim given widespread attention by Graham Hancock some decades ago in The Sign and the Seal.
In the 19th century, Theosophists claimed Sirius as having particular esoteric significance. “Blavatsky stated that the star Sirius exerts a mystic and direct influence over the entire living heaven and is linked with every great religion of antiquity.
Alice Bailey sees the Dog Star as the true ‘Great White Lodge’ and believes it to be the home of the ‘Spiritual Hierarchy’. For this reason, she considers Sirius as the ‘star of initiation’.”(m)
Even today, Sirius plays a part in the symbology of Freemasonry, where it is referred to as the ‘Blazing Star’.
Amanda Laoupi has written a five-part paper in which she expands on the significance of Sirius for the Pelasgians, among others(h).
Giulio Magli (1964- ) is an Italian archaeoastronomer with a website in English(d) dedicated to the application of the discipline in Egypt. In 2013, Magli proposed that aspects of the Göbleki Tepe site are related to the recent appearance of Sirius in the night sky around 9300 BC(e). Andrew Collins and Rodney Hale argue against this interpretation(f), which is perhaps understandable as they support a linkage with the Cygnus constellation.
A 2004 paper by Magli, on precessional effects in ancient astronomy(g), has recently been applied by Lenie Reedijk to her contention that the Maltese temples were oriented to Sirius[1631].
In 2012, E. A. James Swagger published The Newgrange Sirius Mystery [1683] in which he endeavoured to link Ireland’s most important megalithic site with both an early understanding of precession and the symbology of the Dogon.
Further to the east, in Armenia, Sirius was closely studied by the people of Metsamor at what is claimed as one of the oldest observatories in the world. In a series of six articles(o) by Rick Ney, Metsamor and the ancient site of Karahundj, sometimes dubbed ‘Armenia’s Stonehenge’, whose 204 stones stand near the town of Sissian are fully discussed. The Trip Advisor website(n) offers several enticing images.
Going from the serious to the silly, I note that the late Flying Eagle (1920-2007) and his partner Whispering Wind specified the planet Xylanthia(f) in the Sirius star system as the original home of a visitor who fell in love with an earthling and later became known as Poseidon!
The Wessex Research Group offer more nonsense in a paper by Murray Bruce in which the author endeavours to convince us that there were ancient astronauts, who originally came to Earth from Sirius and are remembered in our mythologies as the Gods, the Old Ones etc. Bruce suggests that these visitors probably inspired the description of the Sumerian god Oannes!(r)
The Sirius Research institute is concerned with the study of binary stars, precession and, of course, Sirius(p).
(b) Did the Dogon of Mali know about Sirius B? (archive.org)
(d) https://web.archive.org/web/20180903021842/https://archaeoastronomy-egypt.com/?page=introduction
(f) https://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Gobekli_Sirius.htm
(g) https://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0407/0407108.pdf
(i) https://humanoriginproject.com/sirius-mythology-two-sun-solar-system/
(j) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-ancient-aliens-s14e04-the-stat-gods-of-Sirius
(k) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/robert-temple.html
(l) https://www.wnd.com/2008/05/63998/
(m) https://vigilantcitizen.com/hidden-knowledge/connection-between-sirius-and-human-history/
(o) Astrology on the Web: Armenia’s Stonehenge (archive.org) (to view all six papers, just change the number in the URL) *
(q) Atlantis Rising magazine #29 https://archive.org/details/Atlantis_Rising_29/page/n3/mode/2up
(r) http://www.wessexresearchgroup.org/download/pdf_are_our_roots_in_sirius.pdf
(s) THEORIES ON WHY THE GREAT PYRAMID WAS BUILT (gizapyramid.com)
Theosophy
Theosophy is defined by Britannica as an “occult movement originating in the 19th century with roots that can be traced to ancient Gnosticism and Neoplatonism. The term theosophy, derived from the Greek theos (‘god’) and sophia (‘wisdom’), is generally understood to mean ‘divine wisdom’.”
The movement was co-founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge, but is probably best known through the writings of Blavatsky, who has been denounced as a fraudster and plagiarist.
Theosophy offers a range of odd beliefs regarding Atlantis(a) including the idea that it sank in portions in a series of earthquakes that began 800,000 years ago before the last island of Atlantis, Poseidonis, sank in 9564 BC.
Theosophy spawned a number of breakaway groups and has inspired quite a number on the lunatic fringe of Atlantis writers. Anthroposophy, a concoction of Rudolf Steiner, was one of these.
Aryans
Aryan is a term used to denote “peoples speaking Indo-European (or specifically Indo-Iranian) languages, or ancient peoples thought to have spoken Proto-Indo-European, the hypothetical language from which Indo-European languages are believed to derive.”
An Aryan Atlantis was proposed by Ignatius Donnelly in his famous 1882 book(a), selectively employing biblical texts and a variety of mythologies to support his view.>However, he did not use the term in the racist manner it came to be employed just four decades later.<
Donnelly also promoted the popular 19th-century idea that India was subjected to an invasion by Aryans from the northwest. This idea is still debated today with opponents of the idea, such as the American-born Vedic scholar, David Frawley, who see the Aryans, not as invaders but indigenous Indians[0817]. Graham Hancock quotes Frawley extensively in support of his ancient civilisation views.
The term ‘Aryan’ was also used to describe one of Blavatsky’s imaginary ‘root races’, however, some argue that it was used in a ‘spiritual’ sense, but this is debated.
>The World History Encyclopedia offers an excellent overview of the origins of the Aryans(b) as well as the etymology of the name itself. It explains how “it was first applied as a self-identifying term by a migratory group of people from Central Asia (Kazakhstan) later known as Indo-Iranians (who settled on the Iranian Plateau) and, later, applied to Indo-Aryans (who traveled south to settle northern India).” It seems that this group integrated with the people of the Indus Valley. When, in the 2nd millennium BC, the Indus Valley civilisation declined, supposedly due to climate change, its people moved south. This may also have been exacerbated by a decline in trade, due to internal strife in two of their principal trading partners, Mesopotamia and Egypt.<
Today the term is primarily used to describe the family of languages known as Indo-European. Unfortunately, the word has also a dark side to its history, with its arrogation by the Nazis to describe their ‘master race’.
Sepehr, Robert
Robert Sepehr>is self-described<as an American author, producer and anthropologist. He 
specializes in linguistics, archaeology, and paleobiology.
Even more extreme are his ideas regarding a hollow or partially hollow Earth as expressed in his, Gods with Amnesia[1404]. Apart from promoting this silly idea, Sepehr’s book is claimed to contain an amount of plagiarised material(b).
He is harshly critical of the ‘out-of-Africa’ theory as evidenced by blogs on his Atlantean Gardens website(a). Sepehr takes a hyperdiffusionist position and proposes that an ‘out-of-Atlantis’ hypothesis would be more appropriate, although he seems to be overly influenced by the writings of Blavatsky in this regard. For me, his site is unreliable, containing too much pseudoscience and speculation.
(a) https://atlanteangardens.blogspot.ie/2014/05/out-of-atlantis-not-out-of-africa.html
Drake, W. Raymond
W. Raymond Drake (1913-1989) was a British writer who>was an ardent follower of Charles Fort, commenting that “I aspired to collect as many facts as possible from ancient literature to chronicle for the past what Charles Fort has so brilliantly done for the present century.”<
Drake began the publication of a series of books about ancient astronauts years before the better-known work of Erich von Däniken. From the start, Drake has included frequent references to Atlantis in his books. However, much of what he has written on Atlantis seems to have originated from the dubious outpourings of Blavatsky and Cayce. An example of his conclusions is “The Atlanteans probably developed electronic even telepathic techniques, radio, radar, television, for communicating with their armed forces, far-flung Empire and the near planets, the abode of their Teachers.” [1038.61]
Delaage, Guillaume *
Guillaume Delaage is the author of a number of books on ancient mysteries and esotericism. He frequently refers to Helena Blavatsky and holds her writing in high regard. On his website, there is a six-part article(a) on Atlantis. He reviews the leading theories, but in the final part seems to find the theories of Otto Muck the most convincing.
His Atlantis papers are no longer online but anyone with the stamina can still read page after page of waffle regarding Hermetic Teaching and global consciousness on his website(b).
(a) guillaume-delaage-Atlantide 1 (archive.org) (French) *
Vrilology *
Vrilology is defined by the Church of Vrilology website(a) as “the practice of harnessing the Life Force that we share with the Gods, which we call, Vril, through the practice of Seither and Galdor sciences.” This cult claims to trace its origins back to the old Norse religion which they describe as a pan-European religion and which they claim will have the most meaning for people of European ancestry. They also claim that they trace their philosophy back even further to around 10,000 BC when the ‘Gods’ visited a group of Caucasian people living around the Black Sea imparting to them the secrets of Vrilology which enabled the group to develop into ‘supermen’ which led to the development we call Atlantis!
The only reason that I have included any mention of this silly pseudo-religion is that their website has a lengthy article(b) about the Black Sea Atlantis including material from Ryan & Pitman and the Schoppes.
Reading through the Vrilology website and despite its frequent protestations, I could not help feeling that there was a neo-Nazi undertone to the entire cult. My feelings appeared justified by an American site criticising certain cult members in New Jersey. Another site confirmed my misgivings(d).
Another site(e), heavily laced with bovine manure, offers a way into our hollow earth using a ‘vril generator’, which of course can be bought through the site.
An account(f) of Vril, mediums, Nazis and the link to the Aldebaran solar system will provide you with some light relief. Equally entertaining are the pathetic attempts by some New Age nutters to try and associate Nikola Tesla with vril(g).
Nevertheless, this vril nonsense has now been expanded by Xavier Séguin, who suggests that megalithic dolmens and menhirs can generate vril energy, which can be used to expedite the maturing of wine(i)!
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was a British novelist who introduced us to vril in his 1871 novel Vril: The Power of the Coming Race[1336](h). Some of his ideas were ‘borrowed’ by Blavatsky.
(a) https://web.archive.org/web/20200125021701/https://vrilology.org/questions__answers.htm
(b) https://web.archive.org/web/20130108091223if_/https://www.vrilology.org/Atlantis_page.htm
(c) https://vrilology.blogspot.ie/
(d) https://provionalannpcharter.blogspot.ie/
(e) VRIL GENERATOR (archive.org) *
(f) https://atlanteangardens.blogspot.ie/2014/05/vril-power-of-coming-race.html