The World Before: Pt 2
In this issue, destruction of worlds, laser beam mishaps, and sexy fish people
To recap: The Atlanteans have a secret crystal weapon that they’re using to help Lemurians wipe out the dinosaurs, with varying levels of success. How could this go wrong?
Meanwhile, on Atlantis
Life on Atlantis was like Lemuria, but with the following:
Roasted meats
Sheep as pets, complete with ornate accessories (shoes, scarves, glasses- the works)
300-400 year life expectancy
Controversy about evolution (Did we evolve from the Things, or did God make us as we are today?)
Sick togas
Flying transportation baskets, powered by crystals
Used abacuses more sophisticated than the most advanced computers (in 1976)
Atlanteans communicated verbally, but could also project a language of symbology into the minds of other people, which made them formidable builders and engineers. Ruth’s Guides compare Atlantis to antebellum South- beautiful and elegant for a select few, built on the labor of a subjugated underclass of “The Things,” or Atlantis’ human-animal hybrids.
Like the US, Atlantis was known for its rapid technological advance. Using local crystals that reflected both the moon and sun, they created airships akin to helicopters. These helicopters were essentially hot air balloons powered by the crystals.
“The mighty Crystal! That force for Good and Evil which Edgar Cayce said still lies in the Atlantic Ocean beneath the Bermuda Triangle…”
As for the aforementioned Great Crystal, Space People helped the Atlanteans find a large vein of quartz, which they cut into infinitely small facets and conducted unlimited energy from the sun and moon.
Unrelated by still interesting, a Facebook comment from 6 years ago:
The Guides posit that the Great Crystal was formed by visiting space people who took an interest in the Atlanteans’ rapid industrialization. This granted Atlantis energy independence, as they were able to store the surplus in copper barrels.
There’s no way this rapid technologization could go bad, right?
The (First) Great Cataclysm
Mu was doomed, said the Holy Men and the Space People. Luckily, the Lemurians were a measured people who didn’t panic under pressure or hoard toilet paper. Those who wished to stay alive slowly emigrated to Atlantis, Asia, and the Americas. Those who wanted to return to the Astral Plane stayed put, and likely partied harder than anyone ever has.
Many decades later, the Earth shook. Volcanoes erupted, where plains had been, huge jutting mountains erupted from the crust of the planet. The poles shifted positions, with North becoming South and vice versa. The great continent of Mu, along with all the animals, plants, and remaining Lemurians, sunk into the Pacific Ocean. The only trace of the continent left today is the Hawaiian islands. Aloha, Lemuria.
Atlantis didn’t escape the polar shift unscathed- with it came famine, new seasonal patterns, and mass death- equal to the “current population of the world,” which in 1976 was around 4.13 billion people.
Another casualty of the Cataclysm? The dinosaurs. Human’s large pest problem was over for good, save some hanger-ons in the deep sea. (Sharks, if you were wondering)
Cataclysm Part II: Electric Boogaloo
Gentle, philosophical Mu was gone and technology-obsessed Atlantis became the cultural and political powerhouse of the entire world for millennia.
With the gentle Lemurians out of the picture, Atlanteans reigned supreme over the entire world, eventually conquering the majority of Europe and Africa. At some point, the Atlanteans turned their greedy eyes to what is now Persia, but tragedy struck while the continent’s top scientists tested a new super weapon.
The new super weapon was supposed to be able to send a “tractor beam” through the earth’s crust to zap what is now China, but in a stroke of karma, the machine instead blew up the entire continent of Atlantis. Why the Atlanteans wanted to blow up China? The Guides don’t specify. It’s not important.
There are a few other theories as to why Atlantis was sucked into the murky deep- one coming from a surprisingly legitimate source, Plato’s, “The Republic.” In Plato’s account, Atlantis tries to conquer Athens, so the Greek Gods send the mighty continent straight to the bottom of the sea. Fuck around and find out!
And just like that, the great continent of Atlantis sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and became what is now the Sargasso Sea (a stagnant patch of in the Atlantic Ocean with a similar reputation to the Bermuda Triangle.)
The Guides say, “We mean that at the depth of the Sargasso Sea lies the mighty Crystal, and at certain periods when the sun and moon are in the right positions the rays reactivate the crystal… Within the Crystal lie the secrets that could revolutionize the world, supplying all power needs and energy sources.”
The idea of a great civilization sinking into the Great Blue Wonder is fascinating and has captivated people for a long time. World-ending floods show up in countless creation myths and cultural stories.
The flood in Genesis, where God floods the world because humans are naughty.
Ancient Sumerian flood in “Epic of Gilgamesh,” where Enlil floods the world because humans are noisy.
In ancient Greek Mythology, we have Zeus flooding the world because he’s Zeus.
In the Hindu “Vedic Satapatha Brahmana,” the earth just flooded on its own, but a fish warned the first man to build a boat.
The Ojibwe teaching of “Waynaboozhoo,” where Gichie Manito purified the world with water.
I could go on, but you get the picture! Deities be floodin’.
And this was the end of Atlantis… or was it?
Next week we’ll dive into the eventual fate of our fave underwater city, and the past lives of Celebrities Probably only Your Grandparents Recognize.
