Profound and intriguing truths and facts, potentially of tremendous importance to humanity, are revealed for the first time in certain letters written by two Mahatmas of the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood to Theosophists of the late 19th century. There is much in the first part of one letter about the now submerged continents of Atlantis and Lemuria, the homes of the fourth and third Root Races respectively. Atlantis and Lemuria are popular buzzwords into today’s New Age movement but are often seriously misunderstood and misrepresented therein.
It was Madame H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement who first presented the spiritual teaching to the world regarding Atlantis and Lemuria, chiefly in Blavatsky’s monumental masterpiece work “The Secret Doctrine” and also in books by other Theosophists such as “Esoteric Buddhism” by A. P. Sinnett, which was based on information from these Mahatma Letters, which were at that time not yet published. In the informative new book “Atlantis and the Cycles of Time” by Joscelyn Godwin, the author shows how spiritual teachings about these two lost and ancient civilisations became progressively more fantastical, ridiculous, and sensational, following HPB’s death and particularly with the rise of channelled messages. It would seem that many New Agers would make excellent science fiction and fantasy novel writers but make for poor philosophers and even poorer exponents of what little amount of the Ancient Wisdom they are able to comprehend.
In a letter quoted from by Sinnett in his book, the Master K.H. writes, “Lemuria can no more be confounded with the Atlantic Continent than Europe with America. Both sunk and were drowned with their high civilizations and ‘gods,’ yet between the two catastrophes, a short period of about 700,000 years elapsed.”
Because Lemuria and Atlantis are often spoken of together, many people have mistakenly assumed that they must have been more or less the same thing. But this is not the case. Lemuria was the huge Pacific continent and Atlantis the huge Atlantic continent. The great watery masses of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are where the major parts of these continents once stood. We say the “major” parts because, as shown in another article, “The Secret Doctrine” explains that Atlantis was not only in the Atlantic. Similarly, Lemuria was not only in the Pacific. For details, see the article just linked to. They were certainly not called “Atlantis” and “Lemuria” in reality but these names were coined as descriptive terms in the 19th century for sake of easy reference and comprehension. HPB explains in “The Secret Doctrine” that the name “Lemuria” was actually the invention of the zoologist P. L. Sclater sometime between 1850 and 1860 and that it was also used by the eminent German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel in his “Pedigree of Man.”
But whatever the names of these two continents actually were, their definite existence is strongly asserted by the Masters, who alone hold the secret records regarding them.
Lemuria and its diverse people – the Lemurians – preceded Atlantis and the Atlanteans and were destroyed by subterranean fire, volcanic action, and the sinking of their land, while Atlantis and the Atlanteans were still in their infancy as a civilisation. The Atlantean Root Race was the predecessor of our own Aryan (also called Indo-Caucasian) Root Race and in light of this fact, combined with how incredibly long ago it was that Atlantis flourished – not to mention its prehistoric Pacific parent civilisation of Lemuria – it is obviously erroneous and impossible that the Atlanteans or Lemurians were of white or caucasian appearance in any way, despite the New Age movement’s preference and peculiar inclination to portray them as such. The majority of them bore relatively little physical resemblance to modern man at all. Many of the Atlanteans were gigantic in stature and the Lemurians even more so. The Lemurian epoch was so long ago and so far back in the primal infancy of physical man that the Lemurians – who are said to have possessed a “Third Eye” in the back of their heads which in modern man is degenerated into and represented by the pineal gland – never even developed any form of speech or verbal communication beyond a basic monosyllabic grunt. Theosophy deals with fact while the New Age movement deals with fantasy. But back to the letter . . .
Here the Master K.H. describes Atlantis as “the great continent, the father of nearly all the present continents” and states that the destruction, flooding, and submergence of its last remaining portions occurred “11,446 years ago, when its last island, that, translating its vernacular name, we may call with propriety Poseidonis – went down with a crash.” Bearing in mind that these words were written in 1882, we can work out that this event was 11,580 years ago as of 2016 or, in other words, it was 9,564 B.C. This specific date is also quoted later on by the Masters.
Speaking again of this event – the final and complete destruction of Atlantis – and revealing more of the story behind it, he says, “The great event – the triumph of our ‘Sons of the Fire Mist’ the inhabitants of ‘Shambullah’ [i.e. Shamballa or Shambhala] (when yet an island in the Central Asian Sea) over the selfish but not entirely wicked magicians of Poseidonis occurred just 11,446 ago.” Master K.H. explains in this letter that the Master M. had suggested that he give “a few more details upon Atlantis since it is greatly connected with evil if not with its origin.”
Explaining some aspects of what we could call “esoteric ethnology,” he says that today’s oriental races such as the Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Malaysian, Indonesian, Japanese, Vietnamese and so on are largely descended from the seventh and final sub-race of the Atlantean Root Race, while the indigenous peoples of Africa and Australia originate from earlier Atlantean sub-races as well as the seventh and final sub-race of the Lemurian Root Race. The first sub-race of this present Root Race is that of the Indian people while the latest sub-race of this Root Race is that of the white Europeans. The Master states that these latter are “the highest people” in terms of what he calls “physical intellectuality” but that the Indians are the spiritually highest people on earth today. HPB echoed this in one of her own letters to A. P. Sinnett when she wrote, “Spiritually they [i.e. the people of India] are immensely higher than we are. The physical point of evolution we have reached only now – they have reached it 100,000 years ago, perhaps. And what they are now spiritually you may not hope to reach in Europe before some millenniums yet. They are almost ready for the evolution of their sixth race units, and Europe has yet to whistle for them and must thank her stars for evoluting even occasionally Hindu like spiritual and beautiful characters.”
In accordance with cyclic law and the ongoing and inevitable process of evolution, each Root Race or Epoch always eventually comes to an end by having its own particular continent or lands (along with the majority of its people) destroyed – alternately by fire and water – and submerged beneath the ocean, to rise again at a later date many millennia down the line.
In this same letter we learn some interesting details about the coming destruction of the Aryan Root Race which is also numerically referred to as the fifth Root Race in Theosophical teaching. This is not due to happen until many thousands of years from now but when it does, the British Isles will be the first victim of the necessary calamity, followed by France “and other lands.” These will be destroyed by fire and then submerged in the waters, whereupon the now submerged continents of Lemuria and Atlantis will “immediately” rise and reappear. Those great continents, having risen from the ocean floor, will eventually become home to parts of the sixth Root Race. They will of course be uninhabitable to begin with due to having been part of the ocean floor for hundreds of thousands of years or even longer. When the seventh and final sub-race of the future sixth Root Race is flourishing on “Lemuria” and “Atlantis” – the massive Pacific and Atlantic continents – the lands which sunk at the end of the fifth Root Race, including the British Isles and the ill-fated parts of Europe, will reappear.
* Several articles especially related to this one are Human Evolution in The Secret Doctrine, Chains, Globes, Rounds and Root Races, The Destruction of Atlantis, The Religion of the Lemurians and Atlanteans, Speech and Language in the Root Races, The Great Sacrifice & The Mystery-Land of Shambhala, “Atlantis” Was Not Only In The Atlantic, The Seven Sub-Races, and The Third Eye and the Pineal Gland.
T H E O S O P H Y 
The article ‘Atlantis and Lemuria’ is very interesting. But I have read some lines from some peras. It lead me towards nearly History of man’s civilization..
Greetings my Friends,
I have been an avid admirer, student and follower of Madam Blavatsky and The Masters since the early 2k’s. Her books “called to me” (Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine) then as I was browsing in a Barne’s & Noble book store one day here in New York, in the Spiritual / New Age section. I am Native American from the Caribbean (Arawak-Taíno from the Dominican Republic), grew up Catholic here in New York City, have studied six different Christian Religions, own an official English translation of the Qurán given to me by one of my close Arab friends, which in turn led me to Philosophy. There, along with my studies in Astronomy since childhood, I found a connection to the Greeks, their Myths (which I noticed in reality is really “Real History” just in a “hidden” form), which then led me to Eastern Philosophy of Buddhism, Tau, Hindu Philosophy and then her books. Now as then, I am seeking out explanations for Life, Religion and Science, for I had an instinctual feeling that the answers to all my questions were waiting for me in the past.. as I discovered with the Planets and Constellations are for the Greeks.. The stories were associated with the stars so that no one would forget..
And here come the pertinent questions. But in noticing the obvious, there is very little History about the Americas. Only the History of the Lemurian, Atlantean, European, Mid East and Far East are mentioned by Blavatsky and The Masters, with America only briefly mentioned by Her as a curiosity, with the possible future outcome of so many racial influences mixing. so the first question is.. Why is the History of the Western Hemisphere (the Americas) and it’s Indigenous Peoples / First Nations never talked about?
In curiosity of the Reproductive Cycles in Nature, the Reproduction Cycles of Humans vs Animals (other Mammals), as to why they are so different, even for Humans that are living in and according to Nature’s Rules, like the Tribes of the Amazon, which are indeed the closest People to Nature that are left today?
In another article which explains The Third Eye.. It is mentioned that abstinence from drugs and drinks will allow one to grow more Spiritual. It is tradition for the Spiritual Leader of most Native American Cultures, to go into trances via natural herbs from time time, in looking for Spiritual Answers to questions. Would these be considered “drugs”, as for example, Marijuana or Ayahuasca are considered here in the United States?
Thank you for listening and I await your answers.. Your humble Student only wishing to learn, as any Truth Seeker really should.
Thank you again..
Hello Jerry, thank you for your comment and questions.
The other article you refer to is “The Third Eye and the Pineal Gland” at https://blavatskytheosophy.com/the-third-eye-and-the-pineal-gland/.
One can only assume that the main reason for the Americas and their indigenous peoples being hardly ever talked about by HPB and the Masters is that although they are of course important, they are not as immediately and directly important for humanity to know about and understand as the past civilisations of the previous two Root Races – the Atlantean (4th) and Lemurian (3rd) – which preceded the presently evolving 5th Root Race, the Aryan or Indo-Caucasian.
In regard to the question about herb-induced trances, I would say from my own personal understanding of the Theosophical teachings and perspective that this is a mistaken and unfortunate approach for those spiritual leaders to take. One can hardly imagine the Masters or Adepts following such a course of action.
In general, drugs and hallucinogens can potentially cause great psychic and mental damage, resulting in various problems and difficulties for the soul now and later.
Spiritual insights and development should come through spiritual means, not narcotic (as in drugs), not sexual (as in tantra), and not physical (as in Hatha Yoga and other forms of physical Yoga practice).
I hope this helps to provide some answers even if you may perhaps not be inclined to agree with them!
Indeed I am in agreement. I have always felt that The Path to the Spiritual should be unabated by any means, especially since the vessel (body) contains within THAT which is the connection to the ALL. As far as the Indigenous of the Americas I will continue to research.. it has always been an ongoing study for me to understand my Native Roots.. Which leads me to the one unanswered question by you about the Reproduction Cycles I stated above. If you would be so kind as to offer your opinion via Blavatsky and The Masters if any.. 🙂
Here are extracts from some of what is given on North and South America. This first one concerns.its place in the rise & fall of continents, from an article by WQJ; a quote by HPB follows it:
“In the first pages of the second volume (of the SD) she speaks of five great Continents. First, the Imperishable Sacred Land [this is at the North Pole, W.Q.J.]; second, the Hyperborean, now part of it is in Northern Asia; third, Lemuria, sunk long ago, but leaving some remains, islands, the points of high mountain ranges; fourth, Atlantis, presumably in the Atlantic Ocean, now below the level of the water, but with perhaps Teneriffe and Atlas as reminders; and fifth, “was America.”
From a survey of the book, digging in notes and culling from the text here and there, the conclusion is irresistible that although the present America is not the actual Continent as it is to be, it is a portion of it; and certainly is now the nursery for the race that will in the future occupy the sixth Continent, which for the sixth Great Root-Race will emerge from the waters. Where? Perhaps when the present America has been split up by tremendous cataclysms, leaving here and there large pieces on its western side, it is in the Pacific Ocean that the great mass of the new one will come up from the long sleep below the sea. Rightly then will the great far western ocean have been named Pacific, for that Race will not be given to contest nor hear of wars or rumours of war, since it will be too near the seventh, whose mission it must be to attain to the consummation, to seize and hold the Holy Grail.
Turn to page 444 and onward of the second volume. Read there that the Americans have become in only three hundred years a primary race pro tem., in short, the germs of the sixth sub-race, to blossom in a few more centuries into the pioneers of that one which must succeed to the present European fifth sub-race in all its characteristics. Then after about 25,000 years, which you will note is meant for a great sidereal cycle of a little over that length of time, this new race will prepare for the seventh sub-race. Cataclysms will then fall upon you; lands and nations will be swept away, first of all being the European, including the British Isles – if not gone before – and then parts of both North and South America.”
“It seems as if some power, deliberately planning, had selected North and South America for the place where a new primary root-race should be begun.”
(Interestingly WQJ suggests this is where the beginnings of the 6th ROOT RACE will be, not only the 6th SR of the 5th RR, WW)
[ from ‘ON THE FUTURE: A FEW REFLECTIONS’ by William Q Judge in Lucifer, March 1892. ]
On the Ancient South America
“As regards prehistoric buildings, both Peru and Mexico are rivals of Egypt. Equalling the latter in the immensity of her cyclopean structures, Peru surpasses her in their number; while Cholula exceeds the grand pyramid of Cheops in breadth, if not in height. Works of public utility, such as walls, fortifications, terraces, water-courses, aqueducts, bridges, temples, burial-grounds, whole cities, and exquisitely paved roads, hundreds of miles in length, stretch in an unbroken line, almost covering the land as with a net. On the coast, they are built of sun-dried bricks; in the mountains, of porphyritic lime, granite and silicated sandstones. Of the long generations of peoples who built them, history knows nothing, and even tradition is silent.”
from “A LAND OF MYSTERY” by H.P.B. an excellent and very extensive four part article first printed in instalments in The Theosophist between March and June 1880.
http://www.wisdomworld.org/additional/ancientlandmarks/ALandOfMystery-HPB1of4.html
Some may know this site, it contains many original articles, a valuable resource.
There are also WQJ’s stories of his travels in S America, such as “A WEIRD TALE” regarding experiences he had in Caracas, Venezuela and later in London UK:
“Nearly all of my friends in India and Europe are aware that I have travelled often to the northern part of the South American continent and also to Mexico. That fact has been indeed noticed in this magazine. One very warm day in July, 1881, I was standing at the vestibule of the Church of St. Theresa in the City of Caracas, Venezuela. This town was settled by the Spaniards who invaded Peru and Mexico and contains a Spanish-speaking people. A great crowd of people were at the door, and just then a procession emerged, with a small boy running ahead and clapping a loud clapper to frighten away the devil. As I noticed this, a voice in English said to me, “Curious that they have preserved that singular ancient custom.” Turning, I saw a remarkable-looking old man who smiled peculiarly and said, “Come with me and have a talk.” I complied, and he soon led me to a house which I had often noticed, over the door being a curious old Spanish tablet devoting the place to the patronage of St. Joseph and Mary…”
Extracts from http://www.theosophy-ult.org.uk/book-review/letters-that-have-helped-me/ p 207.
“A Weird Tale” was originally published in the Theosophist during WQJ’s life.
I wish to thank you Will and Secretdoctrine both for your explanations. I was forgetting about about these portions of the literature that I have read previously.. though mostly my readings were not conducted under quiet conditions, where I would be uninterrupted unlike a Subway Car or Job Site. Both Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine require silent meditation to really sink in as they should. But as I did read, I did draw out a great many things that I scribbled on a notepad for later reference to others things I have learned previously.. as well as books that were mentioned, that I will someday get as well if I am allowed to. I say all the above with a good heart and solely upon curious inquiry of understanding our roles where we are in the world at present. There are many things going on as you know.. and it is disheartening to see so much destruction of peoples all over.. but I know that is definitely not the end.. just a required change of many still yet to come..
Thank you both again and I look forward to any other comments you may have. 🙂