|
Country Ruling Sign Egoic Ray Ruling Sign
Personality Ray
Ireland Virgo 6th - Pisces
12th - DN. DK.
At one of the magnetized spots in either Scotland or
Wales, a branch for occult training will be begun before so very long, which will lay the foundation and embrace the curriculum
for the earlier grades.
After it has been in existence for a few years and
has proved the effectiveness of its training, and after troubled Ireland has adjusted her internal problems, a school for
the more advanced grades, and for definite preparation for the mysteries will be started in Ireland at one of the magnetized
spots there to be found. This school will be very definitely a school where preparation for a major initiation may be taken,
and will be under the eye of the Bodhisattva, preparing the pupil for initiation upon the second ray.
Preparatory Grades: Scotland or Wales.
Advanced School: Ireland. LOM. DK.
The word Initiation comes from two Latin words, in,
into; and ire, to go; therefore, the making of a beginning, or the entrance into something. IHS. DK.
For instance, if the school is a second ray school
- such as the one in Ireland is purposed to be - teachers and pupils on the second, fourth and sixth rays will be found in
it. At least one fifth ray teacher will be found in every school of occultism. LOM. DK.
The Master P. works under the Master R. in North America.
He it is who has had much to do esoterically with the various mental sciences, such as Christian Science, and New Thought,
both of which are efforts put forth by the Lodge in an endeavor to teach men the reality of that which is not seen, and the
power of the mind to create.
This Master occupies an Irish body, is on the fourth
ray, and the place of his residence may not be revealed. Much of the work of the Master Serapis was taken over by him when
the latter turned his attention to the deva evolution. IHS. DK.
From the earliest times two grand divisions are recognized
in the Aryan family: "to the east those who specially called themselves Arians, whose descendants inhabited Persia, India,
etc.; to the west, the Yavana, or the Young Ones, who first emigrated westward, and from whom have descended the various nations
that have populated Europe. This is the name (Javan) found in the tenth chapter of Genesis." (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Ancient
History of the East," vol. ii., p. 2.) But surely those who "first emigrated westward," the earliest to leave the parent stock,
could not be the "Young Ones;" they would be rather the elder brothers. But if we can suppose the Bactrian population to have
left Atlantis at an early date, and the Greeks, Latins, and Celts to have left it at a later period, then they would indeed
be the "Young Ones" of the family, following on the heels of the earlier migrations, and herein we would find the explanation
of the resemblance between the Latin and Celtic tongues. Lenormant says the name of Erin (Ireland) is derived from Aryan;
and yet we have seen this island populated and named Erin by races distinctly. connected with Spain, Iberia, Africa, and Atlantis.
There is another reason for supposing that the Aryan
nations came from Atlantis. We find all Europe, except a small corner of Spain and a strip along the Arctic Circle, occupied
by nations recognized as Aryan; but when we turn to Asia, there is but a corner of it, and that corner in the part nearest
Europe, occupied by the Aryans. All the rest of that great continent has been filled from immemorial ages by non-Aryan races.
There are seven branches of the Aryan family: 1. Germanic or Teutonic; 2. Slavo-Lithuanic; 3. Celtic; 4. Italic; 5. Greek;
6. Iranian or Persian; 7. Sanscritic or Indian; and of these seven branches five dwell on the soil of Europe, and the other
two are intrusive races in Asia from the direction of Europe. Atlantis The Antediluvian World. Ignatius Donnelly.
The forts on the western coast of Scotland are reminiscent
of the mysterious clifftop forts in the Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland. Here we truly have shades of the Atlantis
story, with a powerful naval fleet attacking and conquering its neighbours in a terrible war. It has been theorised that the
terrible battles of the Atlantis story took place in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England--however, in the case of the Scottish
vitrified forts it looks as if these were the losers of a war, not the victors. And defeat can be seen across the land: the
war dykes in Sussex, the vitrified forts of Scotland, the utter collapse and disappearance of the civilisation that built
these things. What long-ago Armageddon destroyed ancient Scotland? The Vitrified Forts of Scotland.
The second sub-race of the Aryan, the Arabian, sometimes
also called Semitic-- among the Berbers, the Moors, the Kabyles, and even the Guanches of the Canary Islands, in this last
case mingled with the Tlavatli. This wave encountered the fourth and intermingled with it in the Spanish peninsula, and at
a later stage of its existence-- only about two thousand years ago-- it contributed the last of the many elements which go
to make up the population of Ireland; for to it belonged the Milesian invaders who poured into that island from Spain. MWW. AB.
CWL.
But a far more splendid element of the Irish population
had come into it before: that from the sixth wave, which left Asia Minor in a totally different direction, pushing north-west
until they reached Scandinavia, where they intermingled to some extent with the fifth sub-race, the Teutonic, of which we
shall speak in the next chapter. They thus descended upon Ireland from the north, and are celebrated in its history as the
Tuatha-de-Danaan, who are spoken of more as Gods than men. The slight mixture with the Teutonic sub-race gave this last wave
some characteristics, both of disposition and of personal appearance, in which they differed from the majority of their sub-race.
But, on the whole, we may describe the men of this fourth, or Keltic sub-race, as having brown or black hair and eyes, and
round heads. They were, as a rule, not tall in stature, and their character showed clearly the result of the Manu' s efforts
thousands of years before. They were imaginative, eloquent, poetical, musical, capable of enthusiastic devotion to a leader,
and splendidly brave in following him, though liable to quick depression in case of failure. They seemed to lack what we call
business qualities, and they had but scant regard for truth. MWW. AB. CWL.
In the north of Europe, for example, the nature-spirits
are somewhat wistful, and have moods of mournful introspection, and such as these find a ready home in Scotland, Ireland,
Wales, Brittany and similar places; they respond less readily to joy, and the people there are also colder and more difficult
to rouse. In those countries nature is less joyous; they are all lands of much rain and dull skies, grey and green, where
life and poetry take a wistful turn. Masters And The Path. CWL.
Within the comity of nations, certain of them have
ever been prime agents for producing conflict. This is largely owing to their fiery temperament and their strong emotional
bias and condition. The Poles and the Irish are prime "catalysts of conflict" and are constantly instigating difficulties
between peoples. Such has ever been their history. RI. DK.
Their rites of sun and fire worship closely resembled
those of the early Celts of Britain and Ireland, and like the latter they claimed to be the "children of the sun." An ark
or argha was one of the universal sacred symbols which we find alike in India, Chaldea, Assyria, Egypt, Greece and amongst
the Celtic peoples. The Story of Atlantis. CWL.
The continent of Atlantis itself, it will be observed,
extended from a point a few degrees east of Iceland to about the site now occupied by Rio de Janeiro, in South America. Embracing
Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, the Southern and Eastern States of America, up to and including Labrador, it stretched across
the ocean to our own islands -- Scotland and Ireland, and a small portion of the north of England forming one of its promontories
-- while its equatorial lands embraced Brazil and the whole stretch of ocean to the African Gold Coast. Ibid.
As regards the original Semite or 5th sub-race ethnologists
have been somewhat confused, as indeed it is extremely natural they should be considering the very insufficient data they
have to go upon. This sub-race had its origin in the mountainous country which formed the more southerly of the two northeastern
peninsulas which, as we have seen, is now represented by Scotland, Ireland, and some of the surrounding seas. Ibid.
Remains of the Rmoahal and Tlavath speech survived
it is true in out-of-the-way parts, just as the Celtic and Cymric speech survives to-day among us in Ireland and Wales. Ibid.
In "Stonehenge" (Flinders Petrie) it is said that "Stonehenge
is built of the stone of the district, a red sandstone, or 'sarsen' stone, locally called 'grey wethers.' But some of the
stones, especially those which are said to have been devoted to astronomical purposes, have been brought from a distance,
probably the North of Ireland." SD. HPB.
In "Johannes Magnus' Infolio" one sees the representation
of the demi-god, the giant Starchaterus (Starkad, the pupil of Kroszharsgrani, the Magician) who holds under each arm a huge
stone covered with Runic characters; and Starkad, according to Scandinavian legend, went to Ireland and performed marvellous
deeds in the North and South, East and West. SD. HPB.
It is very probable that the centre of the convulsion
was in the bed of the Atlantic, at or near the buried island of Atlantis, and that it was a successor of the great earth throe
which, thousands of years before, had brought destruction upon that land.
ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS IN 1737. Ireland also lies near
the axis of this great volcanic area, reaching from the Canaries to Iceland, and it has been many times in the past the seat
of disturbance. The ancient annals contain numerous accounts of eruptions, preceded by volcanic action. In 1490, at the Ox
Mountains, Sligo, one occurred by which one hundred persons and numbers of cattle were destroyed; and a volcanic eruption
in May, 1788, on the hill of Knocklade, Antrim, poured a stream of lava sixty yards wide for thirty-nine hours, and destroyed
the village of Ballyowen and all the inhabitants, save a man and his wife and two children. ("Amer. Cyclop.," art. Ireland.)
While we find Lisbon and Ireland, east of Atlantis, subjected to these great earthquake shocks, the West India Islands, west
of the same centre, have been repeatedly visited in a similar manner. Atlantis The Antediluvian World. Ignatius
Donnelly.
Mr. J. Starke Gardner, the eminent English geologist,
is of the opinion that in the Eocene Period a great extension of land existed to the west of Cornwall. Referring to the location
of the "Dolphin" and "Challenger" ridges, he asserts that "a great tract of land formerly existed where the sea now is, and
that Cornwall, the Scilly and Channel Islands, Ireland and Brittany, are the remains of its highest summits." (Popular Science
Review, July, 1878.) Ibid.
In the first place, the civilization of the Irish dates
back to a vast antiquity. We have seen their annals laying claim to an immigration from the direction of Atlantis prior to
the Deluge, with no record that the people of Ireland were subsequently destroyed by the Deluge. Ibid.
ANCIENT IRISH PIPES
It is not even certain that
the use of tobacco was not known to the colonists from Atlantis settled in Ireland in an age long prior to Sir Walter Raleigh.
Great numbers of pipes have been found in the raths and tumuli of Ireland, which, there is every reason to believe, were placed
there by men of the Prehistoric Period. The illustration on p. 63 represents some of the so-called "Danes' pipes" now in the
collection of the Royal Irish Academy. The Danes entered Ireland many centuries before the time of Columbus, and if the pipes
are theirs, they must have used tobacco, or some substitute for it, at that early period. It is probable, however, that the
tumuli of Ireland antedate the Danes thousands of years. Ibid.
From this account it appears that the rain of water
and mud came from a boiling lake on the mountains; it must have risen to a great height, "like a water-spout," and then fallen
in showers over the face of the country. We are reminded, in this Boiling Lake of Dominica, of the Welsh legend of the eruption
of the Llyn-llion, "the Lake of Waves," which "inundated the whole country." On the top of a mountain in the county of Kerry,
Ireland, called Mangerton, there is a deep lake known as Poulle-i-feron, which signifies Hell-hole; it frequently overflows,
and rolls down the mountain in frightful torrents. On Slieve-donart, in the territory of Mourne, in the county of Down, Ireland,
a lake occupies the mountain-top, and its overflowings help to form rivers.
If we suppose the destruction of Atlantis to
have been, in like manner, accompanied by a tremendous outpour of water from one or more of its volcanoes, thrown to a great
height, and deluging the land, we can understand the description in the Chaldean legend of "the terrible water-spout," which
even "the gods grew afraid of," and which "rose to the sky," and which seems to have been one of the chief causes, together
with the earthquake, of the destruction of the country. Ibid.
The Irish Druidical rites manifested themselves principally
in sun worship. Their chief god was Bel or Baal--the same worshipped by the Ph nicians--the god of the sun. The Irish name
for the sun, Grian, is, according to Virgil, one of the names of Apollo--another sun-god, Gryneus. Sun-worship continued in
Ireland down to the time of St. Patrick, and some of its customs exist among the peasantry of that country to this day. We
have seen that among the Peruvians, Romans, and other nations, on a certain day all fires were extinguished throughout the
kingdom. and a new fire kindled at the chief temple by the sun's rays, from which the people obtained their fire for the coming
year. In Ireland the same practice was found to exist. And unto this day the Irish call the first day of May "Lha-Beul-tinne,"
which signifies "the day of Bel's fire." The celebration in Ireland of St. John's-eve by watch-fires is a relic of the ancient
sun-worship of Atlantis.
The Irish custom of saying "God bless you!" when
one sneezes, is a very ancient practice; it was known to the Romans, and referred, it is said, to a plague in the remote past,
whose first symptom was sneezing. We find many points of resemblance between the customs of the Irish and those of the Hindoo.
The practice of the creditor fasting at the door-step of his debtor until be is paid, is known to both countries; the kindly
"God save you!" is the same as the Eastern "God be gracious to you, my son!" The reverence for the wren in Ireland and Scotland
reminds us of the Oriental and Greek respect for that bird. The practice of pilgrimages, fasting, bodily macerations, and
devotion to holy wells and particular places, extends from Ireland to India. Ibid.
Although it is evident that many thousands of years
must have passed since the men who wrote in Sanscrit, in Northwestern India, could have dwelt in Europe, yet to this day they
preserve among their ancient books maps and descriptions of the western coast of Europe, and even of England and Ireland;
and we find among them a fuller knowledge of the vexed question of the sources of the Nile than was possessed by any nation
in the world twenty-five years ago. Ibid.
The Bronze Period has been one of the perplexing problems
of European scientists. Articles of bronze are found over nearly all that continent, but in especial abundance in Ireland
and Scandinavia. They indicate very considerable refinement and civilization upon the part of the people who made them; and
a wide diversity of opinion has prevailed as to who that people were and where they dwelt. In the first place, it was observed
that the age of bronze (a compound of copper and tin) must, in the natural order of things, have been preceded by an age when
copper and tin were used separately, before the ancient metallurgists had discovered the art of combining them, and yet in
Europe the remains of no such age have been found. Sir John Lubbock says ("Prehistoric Times," p. 59), "The absence of implements
made either of copper or tin seems to me to indicate that the art of making bronze was introduced into, not invented in, Europe."
The absence of articles of copper is especially marked, nearly all the European specimens of copper implements have been found
in Ireland; and yet out of twelve hundred and eighty-three articles of the Bronze Age, in the great museum at Dublin, only
thirty celts and one sword-blade are said to be made of pure copper; and even as to some of these there seems to be a question.
Where on the face of the earth are we to find a Copper Age? Ibid.
The Bronze Age cannot be attributed to the Roman civilization.
Sir John Lubbock shows ("Prehistoric Times," p. 21) that bronze weapons have never been found associated with Roman coins
or pottery, or other remains of the Roman Period; that bronze articles have been found in the greatest abundance in countries
like Ireland and Denmark, which were never invaded by Roman armies; and that the character of the ornamentation of the works
of bronze is not Roman in character, and that the Roman bronze contained a large proportion of lead, which is never the case
in that of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age cannot be attributed to the Roman civilization. Sir John Lubbock shows ("Prehistoric
Times," p. 21) that bronze weapons have never been found associated with Roman coins or pottery, or other remains of the Roman
Period; that bronze articles have been found in the greatest abundance in countries like Ireland and Denmark, which were never
invaded by Roman armies; and that the character of the ornamentation of the works of bronze is not Roman in character, and
that the Roman bronze contained a large proportion of lead, which is never the case in that of the Bronze Age. Ibid.
"When the Northmen first landed in Iceland (A.D. 875),
although the country was uninhabited, they found there Irish books, mass-bells, and other objects which had been left behind
by earlier visitors, called Papar; these pap (fathers) were the clerici of Dicuil. If, then, as we may suppose from
the testimony here referred to, these objects belonged to Irish monks (papar), who had come from the Faroe Islands, why should
they have been termed in the native sagas 'West men' (Vestmen), 'who had come over the sea from the westward' (kommer til
vestan um haf)?" (Humboldt's "Cosmos," vol. ii., 238.) If they came "from the West" they could not have come from Ireland;
and the Scandinavians may easily have mistaken Atlantean books and bells for Irish books and mass-bells. They do not say that
there were any evidences that these relics belonged to a people who had recently visited the island; and, as they found the
island uninhabited, it would be impossible for them to tell how many years or centuries had elapsed since the books and bells
were left there. The fact that the implements of the Bronze Age came from some common centre, and did not originate independently
in different countries, is proved by the striking similarity which exists between the bronze implements of regions as widely
separated as Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark, and Africa. It is not to be supposed that any overland communication existed in
that early age between these countries; and the coincidence of design which we find to exist can only be accounted for by
the fact that the articles of bronze were obtained from some sea-going people, who carried on a commerce at the same time
with all these regions. Ibid.
And in this universal empire Se or Lopez must find
an explanation of the similarity which, as we shall show, exists between the speech of the South American Pacific coast on
the one hand, and the speech of Gaul, Ireland, England, Italy, Greece, Bactria, and Hindostan on the other. Ibid.
THE IRISH COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS.
We have seen that
beyond question Spain and France owed a great part of their population to Atlantis. Let us turn now to Ireland. We would naturally
expect, in view of the geographical position of the country, to find Ireland colonized at an early day by the overflowing
population of Atlantis. And, in fact, the Irish annals tell us that their island was settled prior to the Flood. In their
oldest legends an account is given of three Spanish fishermen who were driven by contrary winds on the coast of Ireland before
the Deluge. After these came the Formorians, who were led into the country prior to the Deluge by the Lady Banbha, or Kesair;
her maiden name was h'Erni, or Berba; she was accompanied by fifty maidens and three men--Bith, Ladhra, and Fintain. Ladhra
was their conductor, who was the first buried in Hibernia. That ancient book, the "Cin of Drom-Snechta," is quoted in the
"Book of Ballymote" as authority for this legend. The Irish annals speak of the Formorians as a warlike race, who, according
to the "Annals of Clonmacnois," "were a sept descended from Cham, the son of Noeh, and lived by pyracie and spoile of other
nations, and were in those days very troublesome to the whole world." Were not these the inhabitants of Atlantis, who, according
to Plato, carried their arms to Egypt and Athens, and whose subsequent destruction has been attributed to divine vengeance
invoked by their arrogance and oppressions?
The Formorians were from Atlantis. They were called
Fomhoraicc, F'omoraig Afraic, and Formoragh, which has been rendered into English as Formorians. They possessed ships, and
the uniform representation is that they came, as the name F'omoraig Afraic indicated, from Africa. But in that day Africa
did not mean the continent of Africa, as we now understand it. Major Wilford, in the eighth volume of the "Asiatic Researches,"
has pointed out that Africa comes from Apar, Aphar, Apara, or Aparica, terms used to signify "the West," just as we now speak
of the Asiatic world as "the East." When, therefore, the Formorians claimed to come from Africa, they simply meant that they
came from the West--in other words, from Atlantis--for there was no other country except America west of them. They possessed
Ireland from so early a period that by some of the historians they are spoken of as the aborigines of the country. The first
invasion of Ireland, subsequent to the coming of the Formorians, was led by a chief called Partholan: his people are known
in the Irish annals as "Partholan's people." They were also probably Atlanteans. They were from Spain. A British prince, Gulguntius,
or Gurmund, encountered off the Hebrides a fleet of thirty ships, filled with men and women, led by one Partholyan, who told
him they were from Spain, and seeking some place to colonize. The British prince directed him to Ireland. ("De Antiq. et Orig.
Cantab.") Spain in that day was the land of the Iberians, the Basques; that is to say, the Atlanteans. The Formorians defeated
Partholan's people, killed Partholan, and drove the invaders out of the country. The Formorians were a civilized race; they
had "a fleet of sixty ships and a strong army." The next invader of their dominions was Neimhidh; he captured one of their
fortifications, but it was retaken by the Formorians under "Morc." Neimhidh was driven out of the country, and the Atlanteans
continued in undisturbed possession of the island for four hundred years more. Then came the Fir-Bolgs. They conquered the
whole island, and divided it into five provinces. They held possession of the country for only thirty-seven years, when they
were overthrown by the Tuatha-de-Dananns, a people more advanced in civilization; so much so that when their king, Nuadha,
lost his hand in battle, "Creidne, the artificer," we are told, "put a silver hand upon him, the fingers of which were capable
of motion." This great race ruled the country for one hundred and ninety-seven years: they were overthrown by an immigration
from Spain, probably of Basques, or Iberians, or Atlanteans, "the sons of Milidh," or Milesius, who "possessed a large fleet
and a strong army." This last invasion took place about the year 1700 B.C.; so that the invasion of Neimhidh must have occurred
about the year 2334 B.C.; while we will have to assign a still earlier date for the coming of Partholan's people, and an earlier
still for the occupation of the country by the Formorians from the West.
In the Irish historic tales called "Catha; or Battles,"
as given by the learned O'Curry, a record is preserved of a real battle which was fought between the Tuatha-de-Dananns and
the Fir Bolgs, from which it appears that these two races spoke the same language, and that they were intimately connected
with the Formorians. As the armies drew near together the Fir-Bolgs sent out Breas, one of their great chiefs, to reconnoitre
the camp of the strangers; the Tuatha-de-Dananns appointed one of their champions, named Sreng, to meet the emissary of the
enemy; the two warriors met and talked to one another over the tops of their shields, and each was delighted to find that
the other spoke the same language. A battle followed, in which Nunda, king of the Fir-Bolgs, was slain; Breas succeeded him;
he encountered the hostility of the bards, and was compelled to resign the crown. He went to the court of his father-in-law,
Elathe, a Formorian sea-king or pirate; not being well received, be repaired to the camp of Balor of the Evil Eye, a Formorian
chief. The Formorian head-quarters seem to have been in the Hebrides. Breas and Balor collected a vast army and navy and invaded
Ireland, but were defeated in a great battle by the Tuatha-de-Dananns. These particulars would show the race-identity of the
Fir-Bolg and Tuatha-de-Dananns; and also their intimate connection, if not identity with, the Formorians. The Tuatha-de-Dananns
seem to have been a civilized people; besides possessing ships and armies and working in the metals, they had an organized
body of surgeons, whose duty it was to attend upon the wounded in battle; and they had also a bardic or Druid class, to preserve
the history of the country and the deeds of kings and heroes.
According to the ancient books of Ireland the race
known as "Partholan's people," the Nemedians, the Fir-Bolgs, the Tuatha-de-Dananns, and the Milesians were all descended from
two brothers, sons of Magog, son of Japheth, son of Noah, who escaped from the catastrophe which destroyed his country. Thus
all these races were Atlantean. They were connected with the African colonies of Atlantis, the Berbers, and with the Egyptians.
The Milesians lived in Egypt: they were expelled thence; they stopped a while in Crete, then in Scythia, then they settled
in Africa (See MacGeoghegan's "History of Ireland," p. 57), at a place called G thulighe or Getulia, and lived there during
eight generations, say two hundred and fifty years; "then they entered Spain, where they built Brigantia, or Briganza, named
after their king Breogan: they dwelt in Spain a considerable time. Milesius, a descendant of Breogan, went on an expedition
to Egypt, took part in a war against the Ethiopians, married the king's daughter, Scota: he died in Spain, but his people
soon after conquered Ireland. On landing on the coast they offered sacrifices to Neptune or Poseidon"--the god of Atlantis.
(Ibid., p. 58.)
The Book of Genesis (chap. x.) gives us the descendants
of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We are told that the sons of Japheth were Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan,
and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. We are then given the names of the descendants of Gomer and Javan, but not of Magog. Josephus
says the sons of Magog were the Scythians. The Irish annals take up the genealogy of Magog's family where the Bible leaves
it. The Book of Invasions, the "Cin of Drom-Snechta," claims that these Scythians were the Ph nicians; and we are told that
a branch of this family were driven out of Egypt in the time of Moses: "He wandered through Africa for forty-two years, and
passed by the lake of Saliv to the altars of the Philistines, and between Rusicada and the mountains Azure, and he came
by the river Monlon, and by the sea to the Pillars of Hercules, and through the Tuscan sea, and he made for Spain, and dwelt
there many years, and he increased and multiplied, and his people were multiplied." From all these facts it appears that the
population of Ireland came from the West, and not from Asia--that it was one of the many waves of population flowing out from
the Island of Atlantis-and herein we find the explanation of that problem which has puzzled the Aryan scholars. As Ireland
is farther from the Punjab than Persia, Greece, Rome, or Scandinavia, it would follow that the Celtic wave of migration must
have been the earliest sent out from the Sanscrit centre; but it is now asserted by Professor Schleicher and others that the
Celtic tongue shows that it separated from the Sanscrit original tongue later than the others, and that it is more closely
allied to the Latin than any other Aryan tongue. This is entirely inexplicable upon any theory of an Eastern origin of the
Indo-European races, but very easily understood if we recognize the Aryan and Celtic migrations as going out about the same
time from the Atlantean fountain-head. There are many points confirmatory of this belief. In the first place, the civilization
of the Irish dates back to a vast antiquity. We have seen their annals laying claim to an immigration from the direction of
Atlantis prior to the Deluge, with no record that the people of Ireland were subsequently destroyed by the Deluge. From the
Formorians, who came before the Deluge, to the Milesians, who came from Spain in the Historic Period, the island was continuously
inhabited. This demonstrates (1) that these legends did not come from Christian sources, as the Bible record was understood
in the old time to imply a destruction of all who lived before the Flood except Noah and his family; (2) it confirms our view
that the Deluge was a local catastrophe, and did not drown the whole human family; (3) that the coming of the Formorians having
been before the Deluge, that great cataclysm was of comparatively recent date, to wit, since the settlement of Ireland; and
(4) that as the Deluge was a local catastrophe, it must have occurred somewhere not far from Ireland to have come to their
knowledge. A rude people could scarcely have heard in that day of a local catastrophe occurring in the heart of Asia.
There are many evidences that the Old World recognized
Ireland as possessing a very ancient civilization. In the Sanscrit books it is referred to as Hiranya, the "Island of the
Sun," to wit, of sun-worship; in other words, as pre-eminently the centre of that religion which was shared by all the ancient
races of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. It is believed that Ireland was the "Garden of Ph bus" of the Western mythologists.
The Greeks called Ireland the "Sacred Isle" and "Ogygia." "Nor can any one," says Camden, "conceive why they should call it
Ogygia, unless, perhaps, from its antiquity; for the Greeks called nothing Ogygia unless what was extremely ancient." We have
seen that Ogyges was connected by the Greek legends with a first deluge, and that Ogyges was "a quite mythical personage,
lost in the night of ages." It appears, as another confirmation of the theory of the Atlantis origin of these colonies, that
their original religion was sun-worship; this, as was the case in other countries, became subsequently overlaid with idol-worship.
In the reign of King Tighernmas the worship of idols was introduced. The priests constituted the Order of Druids. Naturally
many analogies have been found to exist between the beliefs and customs of the Druids and the other religions which were drawn
from Atlantis. We have seen in the chapter on sun-worship how extensive this form of religion was in the Atlantean days, both
in Europe and America. It would appear probable that the religion of the Druids passed from Ireland to England and France.
The metempsychosis or transmigration of souls was one of the articles of their belief long before the time of Pythagoras;
it had probably been drawn from the storehouse of Atlantis, whence it passed to the Druids, the Greeks, and the Hindoos. The
Druids had a pontifex maximus to whom they yielded entire obedience. Here again we see a practice which extended to the Ph
nicians, Egyptians, Hindoos, Peruvians, and Mexicans.
The Druids of Gaul and Britain offered human sacrifices,
while it is claimed that the Irish Druids did not. This would appear to have been a corrupt after-growth imposed upon the
earlier and purer sacrifice of fruits and flowers known in Atlantis, and due in part to greater cruelty and barbarism in their
descendants. Hence we find it practised in degenerate ages on both sides of the Atlantic. The Irish Druidical rites manifested
themselves principally in sun worship. Their chief god was Bel or Baal--the same worshipped by the Ph nicians--the god of
the sun. The Irish name for the sun, Grian, is, according to Virgil, one of the names of Apollo--another sun-god, Gryneus.
Sun-worship continued in Ireland down to the time of St. Patrick, and some of its customs exist among the peasantry of that
country to this day. We have seen that among the Peruvians, Romans, and other nations, on a certain day all fires were extinguished
throughout the kingdom. and a new fire kindled at the chief temple by the sun's rays, from which the people obtained their
fire for the coming year. In Ireland the same practice was found to exist. A piece of land was set apart, where the four provinces
met, in the present county of Meath; here, at a palace called Tlachta, the divine fire was kindled. Upon the night of what
is now All-Saints-day the Druids assembled at this place to offer sacrifice, and it was established, under heavy penalties,
that no fire should be kindled except from this source.
On the first of May a convocation of Druids was held
in the royal palace of the King of Connaught, and two fires were lit, between which cattle were driven, as a preventive of
murrain and other pestilential disorders. This was called Beltinne, or the day of Bel's fire. And unto this day the Irish
call the first day of May "Lha-Beul-tinne," which signifies "the day of Bel's fire." The celebration in Ireland of St. John's-eve
by watch-fires is a relic of the ancient sun-worship of Atlantis. The practice of driving cattle through the fire continued
for a longtime, and Kelly mentions in his "Folk-lore" that in Northamptonshire, in England, a calf was sacrificed in one of
these fires to "stop the murrain" during the present century. Fires are still lighted in England and Scotland as well as Ireland
for superstitious purposes; so that the people of Great Britain, it may be said, are still in some sense in the midst of the
ancient sun-worship of Atlantis. We find among the Irish of to-day many Oriental customs. The game of "jacks," or throwing
up five pebbles and catching them on the back of the hand, was known in Rome. "The Irish keen (caoine), or the lament over
the dead, may still be heard in Algeria and Upper Egypt, even as Herodotus heard it chanted by the Libyan women." The same
practice existed among the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans. The Irish wakes are identical with the funeral feasts of the
Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. (Cusack's "History of Ireland," p. 141.) The Irish custom of saying "God bless you!" when one
sneezes, is a very ancient practice; it was known to the Romans, and referred, it is said, to a plague in the remote past,
whose first symptom was sneezing. We find many points of resemblance between the customs of the Irish and those of the Hindoo.
The practice of the creditor fasting at the door-step of his debtor until be is paid, is known to both countries; the kindly
"God save you!" is the same as the Eastern "God be gracious to you, my son!" The reverence for the wren in Ireland and Scotland
reminds us of the Oriental and Greek respect for that bird. The practice of pilgrimages, fasting, bodily macerations, and
devotion to holy wells and particular places, extends from Ireland to India. All these things speak of a common origin; this
fact has been generally recognized, but it has always been interpreted that the Irish camp, from the East, and were in fact
a migration of Hindoos.
There is not the slightest evidence to sustain
this theory. The Hindoos have never within the knowledge of man sent out colonies or fleets for exploration; but there is
abundant evidence, on the other hand, of migrations from Atlantis eastward. And how could the Sanscrit writings have preserved
maps of Ireland, England, and Spain, giving the shape and outline of their coasts, and their very names, and yet have preserved
no memory of the expeditions or colonizations by which they acquired that knowledge? Another proof of our theory is found
in "the round-towers" of Ireland. Attempts have been made to show, by Dr. Petrie and others, that these extraordinary structures
are of modern origin, and were built by the Christian priests, in which to keep their church-plate. But it is shown that the
"Annals of Ulster" mention the destruction of fifty-seven of them by an earthquake in A.D. 448; and Giraldus Cambrensis shows
that Lough Neagh was created by an inundation, or sinking of the laud, in A.D. 65, and that in his day the fishermen could
"See the round-towers of other days In the waves beneath them shining." Moreover, we find Diodorus Siculus, in a well-known
passage, referring to Ireland, and describing it as "an island in the ocean over against Gaul, to the north, and not inferior
in size to Sicily, the soil of which is so fruitful that they mow there twice in the year." He mentions the skill of their
harpers, their sacred groves, and their singular temples of round form. Atlantis The Antediluvian World. I Donnelly.
We find another proof that Ireland was settled by the
people of Atlantis in the fact that traditions long existed among the Irish peasantry of a land in the "Far West," and that
this belief was especially found among the posterity of the Tuatha-de-Dananns, whose connection with the Formorians we have
shown. The Abb Brasseur de Bourbourg, in a note to his translation of the "Popol Vuh," says: "There is an abundance
of legends and traditions concerning the passage of the Irish into America, and their habitual communication with that continent
many centuries before the time of Columbus. We should bear in mind that Ireland was colonized by the Ph nicians (or by people
of that race). An Irish Saint named Vigile, who lived in the eighth century, was accused to Pope Zachary of having taught
heresies on the subject of the antipodes. At first he wrote to the pope in reply to the charge, but afterward he went to Rome
in person to justify himself, and there be proved to the pope that the Irish had been accustomed to communicate with a transatlantic
world." Ibid.
We have but to look to see that Atlantis was considerably
nearer to Ireland than it was to Italy. Ibid.
JPC.
April 2004
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