Page 97 (part 2)

[[Vol. 2, Page]]763 THE HEIRLOOM OF ATLANTIS. Inscriptions, p. 176). For Atlas is Atlantis which supports the new continents and their horizons on its "shoulders." Decharme, in his Mythologie de la Grece Antique, expresses a doubt as to the correctness of Pierron's translation of the Homeric word [[ echei ]] by sustinet, as it is not possible to see "how Atlas can support or bear at once several pillars situated in various localities." If Atlas were an individual it would be an awkward translation. But, as he personifies a continent in the west said to support heaven and earth at once ( AEschylus, " Prometheus Vinctus, " 351, 429, etc. ) -- i.e. , the feet of the giant tread the earth while his shoulders support the celestial vault, an allusion to the gigantic peaks of the Lemurian and Atlantean continents -- the epithet "supporter" becomes very correct. The term "conservator" for the Greek word [[ echei ]], which Decharme, following Sir Theodore Martin, understands as meaning [[ phulassei ]] and [[ epimeleitai ]], does not render the same sense. The conception was certainly due to the gigantic mountain chain running along the terrestrial border (or disc). These mountain peaks plunged their roots into the very bottom of the seas, while they raised their heads heavenward, their summits being lost in the clouds. The ancient continents had more mountains than valleys on them. Atlas, and the Teneriffe Peak, now two of the dwarfed relics of the two lost continents, were thrice as lofty during the day of Lemuria and twice as high in that of Atlantis. Thus, the Lybians called Mount Atlas "the pillar of Heaven," according to Herodotus ( IV ., 184), and Pindar qualified the later AEtna as "the celestial pillar" ( Pyth. 1, 20; Decharme, 315). Atlas was an inaccessible island peak in the days of Lemuria, when the African continent had not yet been raised. It is the sole Western relic which survives, independent, of the continent on which the Third Race was born, developed and fell ,* for Australia is now part of the Eastern continent. Proud Atlas, according to esoteric tradition, having sunk one third of its size into the waters, its two parts remained as an heirloom of Atlantis. This again was known to the priests of Egypt and to Plato himself, the solemn oath of secrecy, which extended even to the mysteries of Neo-Platonism, alone preventing the whole truth from being told.** So [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * This does not mean that Atlas is the locality where it fell, for this took place in Northern and Central Asia; but that Atlas formed part of the continent. ** Had not Diocletian burned the esoteric works of the Egyptians in 296, together with their books on alchemy -- "[[ peri chumeias kai chrusou ]]"; Caesar 700,000 rolls at Alexandria, and Leo Isaurus 300,000 at Constantinople ( viiith cent. ); and the Mahomedans all they could lay their sacrilegious hands on -- the world might know to-day more of Atlantis than it does. For Alchemy had its birth-place in Atlantis during the Fourth Race, and had only its renaissance in Egypt. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 764 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. secret was the knowledge of the last islands of Atlantis, indeed, -- on account of the superhuman powers possessed by its inhabitants, the last direct descendants of the gods or divine Kings, as it was thought -- that to divulge its whereabouts and existence was punished by death. Theopompus says as much in his ever-suspected Meropis, when he speaks of the Phoenicians as being the only navigators in the seas which wash the Western coast of Africa; and who did it with such mystery that very often they sunk their own vessels to make the too inquisitive foreigners lose all trace of them. There are those Orientalists and historians -- and they form the majority -- who, while feeling quite unmoved at the rather crude language of the Bible, and some of the events narrated in it, show great disgust at the immorality in the pantheons of India and Greece.* We may be told that before them Euripides, Pindar, and even Plato, express the same; that they too felt irritated with the tales invented --"those miserable stories of the poets," as Euripides expresses it ([[ haoidon hoide dustenoi logoi ]], Hercules furens, 1346 , Dindorf ' s Edition ) . But there may have been another reason for this, perhaps. To those who knew that there was more than one key to theogonic symbolism, it was a mistake to have expressed it in a language so crude and misleading. For if the educated and learned philosopher could discern the kernel of wisdom under the coarse rind of the fruit, and knew that the latter concealed the greatest laws and truths of psychic and physical nature, as well as the origin of all things -- not so with the uninitiated profane. For him the dead letter was religion ; the interpretation -- sacrilege. And this dead letter could neither edify nor make him more perfect, seeing that such an example was given him by his gods. But [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Professor Max Muller's Lectures -- "on the Philosophy of Mythology" -- are before us. We read his citations of Herakleitos (460 B.C .), declaring that Homer deserved "to be ejected from public assemblies and flogged;" and of Xenophanes "holding Homer and Hesiod responsible for the popular superstitions of Greece. . . . " and for ascribing "to the gods whatever is disgraceful and scandalous among men . . . unlawful acts, such as theft, adultery, and fraud." Finally the Oxford Professor quotes from Professor Jowett's translation of Plato, where the latter tells Adaimantos (Republic) that "the young man (in the State) should not be told that in committing the worst of crimes, he is far from doing anything outrageous, and that he may chastise his father (as Zeus did with Kronos) . . in any manner that he likes, and in this will only be following the example of the first and greatest of the gods. . . In my opinion, these stories are not fit to be repeated. " To this Dr. Max Muller observes that "the Greek religion was clearly a national and traditional religion, and, as such, it shared both the advantages and disadvantages of this form of religious belief "; while the Christian religion is "an historical and, to a great extent, an individual religion, and it possesses the advantage of an authorised codex and of a settled system of faith" (p. 349). So much the worse if it is "historical," for surely Lot's incident with his daughters would only gain, were it "allegorical." [[Vol.