The Lemurian Legend

[The Origin of the Lemurian Legend]

Has anyone else heard of this Or any comments ? Oroblanco you there

PLL

The Origin of the Lemurian Legend

Perhaps the most popular example of Mount Shasta lore, and a legend involving the first claim by non-Native Americans for a spiritual connection with the mountain, concerns the mystical brotherhood believed to roam through jeweled corridors deep inside the mountain. According to Miesse, "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 Plants, or, the Dividing of the Way which described a secret city inside of Mount 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 Mount Shasta. Selvius reported that Larkin had seen the Lemurian village through a telescope. In 1931 Wisar Spenle Cerve 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 Lemuria-Mount Shasta legend has developed into one of Mount Shasta's most prominent legends" (1993; 136).

According to Zanger, Frederick Spencer Oliver was a Yrekan teen who claimed that his hand began to uncontrollably write a manuscript dictated to him by Phylos, a Lemurian spirit (1993). Meisse points out that Oliver's novel of spiritual fiction is "The single most important source of  Mount Shasta's esoteric legends. The book contains the first published references linking Mt. Shasta to: 1) a mystical brotherhood; 2) a tunnel entrance to a secret city inside Mount Shasta; 3) Lemuria; 4) the concept of "I AM"; 5) "channeling" of ethreal spirits; 6)a panther surprise" (1993; 143). The author claims to have written most of the novel within sight of Mount Shasta, and autobiographical telling of the story from Phylos the Thibetan's point of view is an interesting twist. We have included a few pages of text from the novel, including the reference to the mystic brotherhood that lives amid "the walls, polished as by jewelers, though excavated by giants; floors carpeted with long, fleecy gray fabric that looked like fur, but was a mineral product; ledges intersected by the builders, and in their wonderful polish exhibiting veinings of gold, of silver, of green copper ores, and maculations of precious stones." (Oliver 1905; 248).

In 1908, Adelia H. Taffinder wrote an article, "A Fragment of the Ancient Continent of Lemuria," for the Atlantic Monthly. In her article she links the concept of Lemuria to California, and Meisse proposses that the 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 Lemurian Myth as presented by Selvius in 1925 and Creve in 1931" (1993; 147).

Selvius' 1925 two-page article, "Decendants of Lemuria" is, according to Meisse, "the singlemost inportant document in the establishment of the modern Mt. Shasta-Lemurian myth," so we have included Selvius' full-text article.  Selvius claims that Professor Edgar Lucian Larkin viewed the Lemurian site on Mount Shasta using his telescope: "Even no less a careful investigator and scientist than Prof. Edgar Lucin Larkin, for many years director of Mount 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."

Although Selvius' article is the most historically interesting, Wishar Spenle Cerve's 1931 Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific is, according to Meisse, "responsible for the legend's widespread popularity" (1993; 146). Perhaps most intriging is Meisse's speculation that "it appears from the similarity of material that "Selvius" and "Cerve" were one and the same person" (1993; 145). Further muddying the waters is Edward Stul's worth claim that "Wishar Spenly Cerve" is really a letter-for-letter pseudonym for "Harve Spencer Lewis,"  first Imperator of the Rosicrucian Order of North and South America.  Still, it is Cerve's book, published by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, that has provided the popular description of the Lemurians as "tall, graceful, and agile," and as visitors that "would come to one of the smaller towns and trade nuggets and gold dust for some modern commodities" (250).

The idea of a lost continent (and the subsequent existence of Lemurians on Mount Shasta), quickly became widely known, though perhaps not so widely believed. In 1939, Mount Shasta botanist William Cooke was in a Cincinati library when he was asked if he "knew anything about the LeMurians." A few months later, in a Mount Shasta Herald article called "Lights on Mt. Shasta: Evidences Discounted,"  Cooke questions the legend that Larkin could have used a telescope to see any structures on Mount Shasta. About a year later, in another Herald article, titled "Wm. Bridge Cooke Discusses 'Lost Continent' Book," Cooke questioned the possibility of a Lemuria or Mu (1941).

Today the belief that Lemurians inhabit the mountain is still very popular, and anyone visiting the local bookstores will likely be suprised by the plethora of texts on the subject.

Old news ... very old.  Start with Phylos and Churchward and work your way forward.  Plenty of Shasta/Panamint material has been published over the years.  The more recent internet material seems kook-based embellishments.  Comments? - yeah ... it's a big subject, and is often cross-pollinated with the Atlantis legends..

Hey Springfield,
 I know it's not new.... Just wondering what people think of the " real " thought of a lost continent in the pacific.... and not the New age kooky stuff..

PLL

HOLA amigo Pegleglooker (and everyone),
Just found your post, interesting stuff buddy.  There is a sunken continent in the Pacific known as "Zealandia" and one in the Indian ocean known as "Kerguelen" but these sank so long ago that it seems unlikely they could be the source(s) of this Lemuria legend.  India has a tradition of a sunken continent lying south of mainland India today, from which their ancestors originated. 
Kumari Kundam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumari_Kandam
Zealandia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealandia_(continent)


Kerguelen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Plateau


About the only "tie in" with Atlantis is the parallel of a disaster causing loss of large land areas due to flooding, which actually would "fit" with the sudden rise of sea levels around the world at the end of the last Ice Age.  One of the apocryphal texts not included in the KJV bible states that a "fourth part" of the Earth was lost to flooding in Noah's flood, which coincides fairly well with what scientists have estimated for the area of land lost by the rising seas. Historians are not willing to accept that any kind of civilization was in existence at the time of the last Ice Age, but there are reasons to believe that man had in fact started possibly several civilizations.  One example is to trace the origins of bananas, which have been grown domestically by human farmers for so long that they no longer produce seeds, they cannot survive being transported through cold regions, and the experts won't venture a guess as to when mankind first started farming them.

I look forward to your replies,
Oroblanco

[we all KNOW it is impossible for a whole CONTINENT to be sunk]

Oops - almost forgot - our historians are fond of crowing that we all KNOW it is impossible for a whole CONTINENT to be sunk, right?  Heh heh 

Hello Oro,
 I hope all is well with you and the Dakota's ( weather getting ready to change I hope you have your roof up ) !!!! Thankx for info but as always I a few questions.... In India isn't there some sort of legend about 10 or 15 churches being close by ?? And aren't they just off of a coast ? I recall some tv show talking about either a low tide or some sort of weather condition that exposed the towers and that how they found out. Could these people have come from your " other " continent ? Also could Zeelandia and Mu be the same place ?? Have you heard of any " proof " of a lost continent ?? Like cups, plates, fabrics etc..... I know this will be hard to decipher from the " kooky " stufz......

PLL

I have read in a book titled Weired Tales California,or something like that,  their have been ecounters of humoid type creatures that look like lizards on Mount Shasta, and they spoke English,and told of a underground city under Mt. Shasta,to me it made a good read,but a little hard to swallow. Also read about giant size catapillars deep in the Red Woods of Northern Calif,sounds more like could be something there.

HOLA amigos,

Pegleglooker wrote

In India isn't there some sort of legend about 10 or 15 churches being close by ?? And aren't they just off of a coast ? I recall some tv show talking about either a low tide or some sort of weather condition that exposed the towers and that how they found out. Could these people have come from your " other " continent ? Also could Zeelandia and Mu be the same place ?? Have you heard of any " proof " of a lost continent ?? Like cups, plates, fabrics etc..... I know this will be hard to decipher from the " kooky " stufz......

I think you may be referring to the legend of the Seven Pagodas?  Six are supposedly submerged, one remains on shore? 
http://www.rense.com/general63/trasur.htm
As this legend dates to the Medieval period (and the pagoda which remains also dates to that time period) it can't be the same with Mu, Lemuria or other very ancient legends of sunken lands.  Zealandia lies farther east extending into the Pacific but seems to be not far enough out into the Pacific to 'fit' with Mu and is millions of years sunk - so isn't likely to be the same, unless mankind had a civilization that existed over 2 million years ago, and we don't have much evidence to support that idea.

Your last question is a most tricky one amigo, can I plead "5th Amendment" on this one?  I can say that Ignatius Donnelly, author of 'Atlantis the Antediluvian Land' and former congressman, felt that the existence of pyramids in such diverse places as Mexico, Peru, Egypt etc was proof.  We can look at the fact there are Lemurs in India and in Madagascar as evidence that there must have been some kind of land link between them in the distant past, because Lemurs do not cross seas. 
Oroblanco

according to this video, it has been located.

<a href="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/1514420/metacafe.swf" target="_blank">http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/1514420/metacafe.swf</a>

[Google map]

Hey gang,
 After watching the video and it's claim to become a heretic    I would gather that it's more about a " cult " than anything. But I did see a cool map that lead me to google earth and a hypothesis. What if the Philippine, New Guinea, and Japan were part of a large continent that sank ? Maybe they were the outlining mts or I would think that if this place was around when Atlantis was here, than the waterline around the earth would have been higher and a possible HUGE flood " could " have happened. Anyway take a look at the 2 maps and let me know what you guys think....

PLL

Google map

Possible location

Interesting stuff amigos - and YES that would work as a lost continent! 
Oroblanco

Hello Everyone

Perhaps the origins of Lemuria came through Asia? Here is two websites that may be of interest?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070919-sunken-city.html

http://www.morien-institute.org/yonaguni.html

[WELCOME TO TREASURENET CROW!!!]

WELCOME TO TREASURENET CROW!!! 

Crow wrote

Perhaps the origins of Lemuria came through Asia? Here is two websites that may be of interest?

I suspect that IS where the legend originates, as we know India has several myths of sunken <homeland> areas supposedly lying in the Indian Ocean south of the subcontinent.  And - THANK  YOU for the interesting article links!   
your friend,
Oroblanco

 Hey gang,
 Ok so if we look at the stories from India and the legends from Japan..... Maybe, part of it exists but because of the area becoming isolated it was left alone and repopulated with different people 100's of years later ( maybe thousands ).... Here is a map of a " maybe ". Note the light blue that shows the water level being shallow compared to the d e e p part of the ocean....

PLL

HOLA amigo Pegleglooker!
I think you are on to something buddy, and hope you will consider pursuing this one as your time will allow.

Side note too - my apologies for not getting that mss submission out to you by now, and wish I had sent it even in the un-finished state it was.  Having a lot of problems with my computer now and can't find most of my <writing> files, which is very aggravating to say the least.  If I can't find the originals, I give you my word that a re-write will be off to you as soon as I have time to get it done.  Anyway just wanted to let you know I had not forgotten, just having PC problems.
Oroblanco

re the non ocean going lemur part.   
I am throwing out a what if scenario  anti land bridge idea - way for a lemur to travel.   
just watching all the recent earthquakes with resulting tidal waves etc. 
imagine an earthquake.  with all the shaking the lemur family climbs into trees for protection. 
wave hits and carries off trees with lemurs in them.  could they be caught on ocean currents and transported that way.
I would like to suggest to some researcher somewhere to check how far away flotsam came ashore from the more recent waves. perhaps it would be even possible to interview a person who got carried off and landed elsewhere.

I still think north and south america was populated by people in boats or kayaks etc  instead of people walking over landbridges.

    Lets settle something about the legend of Lemuria. First, the name Lemuria was first coined by a geologist, William T. Blanford, in 1860 to explain the presence of permian rocks in S. Africa and S. India. Scientists knew nothing of plate tectonics and did not know that S. Africa and S. India were once joined. Second, the Lemurs of Madagascar and S.E. Asia have been proven to come from a parallel line of evolution. They are not related.

    All this would have been forgotten if it had not been for the Theosophical Society and its founder Helena Petrovska Blavantsky. In 1888 she wrote the book "The Secret Doctrine" in which she describes the Lemurian continent and its lizard like race of people. Of course this is all nonsense. Continents don't just sink- but the legend lives on.

I read some good info on the Web a few years ago that said they had pretty well figured out where the "lost Continent" was. They pointed out the fact that this was the only place that domesticated horses could have originated. It was near Indian if I remember right. Lots of factual type scientific stuff not just conjecture. Hope someone can find it again.

[respectfully]

Salvor6 wrote

Continents don't just sink

I must respectfully disagree.  Two continents are known to be submerged today,  Kerguelen and Zealandia, as cited above.  Whether they actually subsided beneath  sea levels or whether sea levels rose  and thus covered them is academic.  Within recorded history there have been large subsidences of land areas, such as the sinking of Helike in Greece, most of ancient Alexandria in Egypt, a vast stretch of the coast of Chile (1960 if memory serves) not to mention island collapses as have occurred in the Hawaiian islands, the Azores etc.  It is commonly published in history books that continents do not sink but they are always in a state of rising, falling, stretching and being compressed and so forth by the actions of the crust of the Earth.   One look at the changing coastline of Louisiana due to the subsidences around the Mississippi delta will show that lands do "sink".  Also, the amount of land areas LOST due to flooding at the end of the last Ice Age amounted to about one fourth of the total land area of the world, for instance Britain was connected to mainland Europe, the Black Sea was a much smaller freshwater lake, the Red Sea basin was a lush valley, the Grand Banks off Newfoundland were huge islands, even the Mediterranean basin was at one time dry land until the sea broke through the straits of Gibraltar and flooded it, creating a huge inland sea. 
Oroblanco
 

[even the Mediterranean basin was at one time dry land until the sea broke through the straits of Gibraltar and flooded it, creating a huge inland sea.]

   even the Mediterranean basin was at one time dry land until the sea broke through the straits of Gibraltar and flooded it, creating a huge inland sea.  



 I for one who like to hear more on this !!!!

PLL

HOLA amigo  Pegleglooker, this massive flood (the Med basin) this occurred about 6 million years ago, when the Med basin was a desert.  There is evidence of a more recent event (the bones of wooly rhinos and mammoths found in caves in Malta which had been washed in by a sudden flood support this) but I don't have all the data on it (yet).  There is plenty online, just search for "Mediterranean basin flood". 
Oroblanco

  BACK on "topic"... Lemuria;   It was ALSO known as MU, and I have read the books by Churchward, or something like that, he disappeared in the jungles (somewhere in South America, in the early 1900's); anyone else know about this? 

HOLA amigo  Pegleglooker, this massive flood (the Med basin) this occurred about 6 million years ago, when the Med basin was a desert.  There is evidence of a more recent event (the bones of wooly rhinos and mammoths found in caves in Malta which had been washed in by a sudden flood support this) but I don't have all the data on it (yet).  There is plenty online, just search for "Mediterranean basin flood". 
Oroblanco

 Thankx Oro I'll check it out

PLL

     "Google" MU & CHURCHWARD. 
 

    "Google" SACRED SYMBOLS OF MU - CHURCHWARD  (15,200 "hits").
 

from my own reading i'm in agreement with oro on this, Wilson's theory of plate tectonics pretty much indicates some (possibly large) areas sinking, you have positive pressure such as the San Andreas fault and negative pressure such as the Marianas trench, this would lead to a certain amount of subsidence by land masses, especially those in the negative pressure areas although how large a land mass is open to debate,

also in the warm period between ice ages the seas have risen but many island groups and chains were above the sea at some point as evidenced by the animal life on separate islands which are not separate species and can only have spread if the entire island chain was one land mass at some time in the past,

during ice ages the seas would retreat and the animals spread over the area, other places because of plate tectonics would sink slowly because the continents either side of them are moving apart, and whilst they may have been dry at some time in the past are now that far below sea level that during the next ice age will still be under water,

estimates of how much the seas have risen and how far they will drop indicate that even during the next ice age they will still be underwater, showing that they do and have subsided,

also volcano's such as Krakatoa which disappeared completely after blowing has now regrown and a new island formed called son of Krakatoa, and the same has happened in the Azores and that was quite recent within the last fifty to sixty years,

as an aside its also known that Pangaea is only the last of the super continents and the earth has gone through a number of cycles with super continents, estimated at three times at least,  eventually in a few million years everything will collide again and then split and spread apart all moving in the opposite direction to the present one,

yes i've also read the Med was a dry valley considerably below sea level until whats known as the Gibraltar land bridge was eroded and the Atlantic flooded the area,

furness

 

   From MY research (STILL on-going...), we have ATLANTIS in the Atlantic Ocean, etc.; we ALSO have LEMURIA (aka MU) in the Pacific Ocean. I heard/read that LEMURIA/MU was more ancient than ATLANTIS... and more ORIENTAL; what-ever is in the ocean off of Japan, sounds like LEMURIA/MU... DUNNO.     "Google" YONAGUNI 

A big Dakota HOWDY to my amigo REBEL! 

Rebel wrote

I heard/read that LEMURIA/MU was more ancient than ATLANTIS

Can you recall how far back these legends are supposed to go?  Seems like there was a Hindu legend which was supposed to be over 100,000 years?  This question for anyone who knows, thank you in advance,
Oroblanco

Hi Oro,
 I my be wrong, but doesn't civilization go back just a little over 10,000 years ?? Would there be a " organized " society back at 100,000

PLL

HOLA mi amigo Pegleglooker!

As far as I know, there is no trace of any civilization which goes back 100,000 years.  There are some paleolithic village sites that date back 40,000 years, which raises interesting ideas viz Atlantis, for if people were living in villages, with specialized jobs (tool maker, clothing maker, etc) storing up foods (pit food caches for meat probably) then are we to believe that no advances were made for some 28,000 years?  Anyway you are correct at least as far as I know, I was only using the figure from memory of a Hindu legend which claims such a very old date.
Oroblanco

   Coffee, anyone?    We MAY looking the WRONG places for these "advanced civilizations";
BOTH Lemuria/Mu & Atlantis "went into the sea"; when? DUNNO... BUT!   Maybe the paleo "this & that" are simply "outposts of survival" and "over-time", became VERY primitive, with "tales" of the past,
(aka MYTHS, etc.) told around campfires of SURVIVAL of the PAST... GLORIOUS days of MAGIC!   ANYWAY, I suspect we would do the same... if something like devastation of 2012 happens, (which I DO NOT believe...).