Relics And Religion Of The Ancient Canary Island Gaunche People

Clay pots made by the Gaunches of Tenerife

Plato described a rich and happy land in the Atlantic which was virtually destroyed by earthquakes and tidal waves some 12,000 years ago. This was Atlantis and many locals are convinced that the Canary Islands are what remains of the submerged paradise.

I was in the Canary Islands recently and came across a display of clay pots and other bits said to be from the time of the original residents of Islands such as Tenerife. These were the Gaunches.

The Guanches were virtually wiped out by the Spanish in the 1400s but relics have been discovered from their past.

The face of God?

Surrounded by Mother Nature who was inexplicable to them, the Gaunches were overawed by the immense power that made the stars turn in the sky above them, bringing them day and night, the gift of rain, or the desolation of drought, the misery of hunger, or the delights of abundance,

Every aspect of their lives, including life and death, all formed part of a single world, with no divisions between them.

The different parts of the Gaunches everyday lives (work, sexuality, social events) were governed by religion. Their funeral rites are said to show how the dead were considered as an image of the living. Death was merely a metaphor for life.

Very few representations or images of Gaunche religious beliefs have survived. The small figure (as shown in the photo above) is made from baked clay and is known as El Guatimac. It is described as being an exceptional find from the Canary Island's pre-history. It is not known as to what it represents. Various theories have a been put forward as to what it might be: a representation of God, an idol, a genie or even simply a lucky charm.

Much of the Guanche knowledge had been lost. As to whether the Canary Islands were once part of Atlantis the 'experts' are undecided..

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The Giants Of Tenerife Left Over From Atlantis

As I mentioned yesterday I have just returned from Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands.

Plato described a rich and happy land in the Atlantic which was virtually destroyed by earthquakes and tidal waves some 12,000 years ago. This was Atlantis and many locals are convinced that the Canary Islands are what remains of the submerged paradise.

From where we stayed we were able to walk to the small town of Los Gigantes (The Giants) which are dominated by cliff formations rising from the Atlantic. They were formed some seven million years ago. Wherever you look in the town The Giants, which rise from the sea to a height of 2700 feet, dominate the views.

These cliffs keep the western side of Tenerife warmer than the rest of the island. The heat from the sun is stored within the rocks.

But whatever the truth of the legends and stories about Atlantis the Acantilados de Los Gigantes are a wonderful sight - providing you don't mind lots of hills and steps!

We walked a different way back to our hotel sticking to the coast via Puerto Santiago and Puerto Pisquero.

A few photos I took along the way (click on them to make bigger):

A small shrine on the quay at Puerto Santiago

A fisherman trying to catch his evening meal

The hill leading up from Playa Puerto Santiago

From the hill looking back at the quay

They must like cats

But the dog in this house didn't like us walking past

Something to eat

And when we finally got back to our hotel room, the friendly lizard was there on the balcony to welcome us - and we were on the top floor - the 8th. Obviously a good climber with a head for heights.

All in all a good day out!

Photos: © Mike Perry

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A White Feather And A Piano Re-Paint Faded Memories In Tenerife

Atlantis Where The Immensely Wealthy, Powerful Egos Ruled The Majority

Many books and theories have been written about the lost continent of Atlantis, but what do we know for sure? Well, not a lot relly.

The story of Atlantis was initially generated by Plato but this is only a version of what had been heard second or third hand.

If we think about it, there is no reason why a continent or country shouldn't have sunk beneath the oceans. Maybe that's what Noah in the Bible is all about. But let's look at Plato's original story.

The Atlantis story comes from two dialogues recorded by Plato: Timaeus and Critias. Critias was actually Plato's great-grandfather.

In Timaeus the discussion is about versions of the ideal state or country - Utopia if you like. Critias then gives his version of Atlantis - which he heard from his grandfather, who heard it from a friend of his fathers. So it is something that may well have been handed down over generations. The problem of this is, as with Chinese Whispers, the original version can become distorted over time.

Atlantis was thought to be nine, or maybe ten thousand years prior to Plato, though some will say only five thousand. Anyway, here is a translation of what is written in Timaeus:

"Our records tell how your city checked a great power which arrogantly advanced from its base in the Atlantic ocean to attack the cities of Europe and Asia, For in those days ... there was an island opposite the strait which you call the Pillars of Heracles (Straits of Gibraltar), an island larger than Libya and Asia combined.

On this island of Atlantis had arisen a powerful dynasty of kings, who ruled the whole island ... in addition they controlled Libya up to the borders of Egypt and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.

This dynasty, gathering its whole power together, attempted to enslave your country and ours and all the territory within the strait. It was Solon who led an alliance of Greeks ... who was forced to overcome the invaders and finally celebrated victory.

At a later time there were earthquakes and floods of extraordinary violence, and in a single dreadful day and night ... the island of Atlantis was swallowed up by the sea and vanished; that is why the sea in that area is impassable to navigation, which is hindered by mud ... the remains of the sunken island.

With Critias the story goes back to gods and the likes. It tells of how the gods divided up the Earth.

Athene was given Greece and founded the Athenian state and Poseidon received Atlantis.

Poseiden made love to one of the island's girls - Cleito - and had ten sons by her. Each of these sons became ruler of part of Atlantis, with the overall king being Atlas (thus the name Atlantis and Atlantic).

The ten sons, as Atlantean kings, met up every sixth year to discuss laws and to pass judgement on wrongdoers. All went well for a long time and high moral standards were kept. But then the residents and kings became ambitious and greedy and Zeus decided to punish them.

... and that's all we really know from the original Plato writings. From there on books and writings have developed and theories developed.


In the The History and Power of Mind,for example, Richard Ingalese writes that Atlantis stretched from Northern Africa to the West Indies and the people who incarnated as Atlanteans were those who had been on Lemuria - another sunken continent.

According to Ingalese Atlantis reached the highest point of development, but materialism swept over the continent (sounds familiar!) and people turned to sensual abandonment. "Atlantis became a continent where a few immensely wealthy, powerful and strong egos rules the majority of the people, and made them their slaves."

All of this brought a reaction - karma - and Atlantis suddenly became submerged. Before the continent sunk beyond trace the upright inhabitants were taken to other countries by the Adepts and other civilisations were originated. The most advanced people moved to North Africa and laid the foundations of the Egyptian Empire.

Though, at the present time, we cannot establish the first hand truth about Atlantis there may well still be lessons we can learn from the stories themselves - there is a certain familiarity.


The Maps:
Top: Atlantis by Patroclus Kampanakis. Originally drawn in 1891, first published in his book "The procataclysm Communication of the Two Worlds via Atlantis"

Middle: 1882 Map of the Atlantean Empire, from Ignatius Donelly's "Atlantis: the Antediluvian World" 1882.

Bottom: Map of Atlantis from "Mundus Subterraneus" by Athanasius Kircher, Amsterdam 1665

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Lemuria The Doomed Continent Of Sensual And Sensuous Lives

Rock Caves of Elephanta: Were they made by Lemurian colonists?

Much has been written about Atlantis. I've written a post myself on this, The Lessons Of Atlantis: The Lost Continent, but Lemuria - which is said to have sunk beneath the sea prior to Atlantis - is often overlooked.

Scientists seem to dismiss the idea, but it still lives on in the occult world.

In the History and Power of Mind Richard Ingalese tells of how Lemuria existed during what is known as the third period of evolution. Little progress was made by mankind during the first two.

Ingalese wrote, back in 1904:

"During the third period of evolution man lived upon the continent known as Lemuria, a continent lying in the Pacific Ocean, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. It's northern portion was much in the present location of the Philippines and the Islands of the Southern Pacific: all of which constitute the remnants of that continent now sunken beneath the seas.

In Lemuria man passed from his lowest state of animal existence into what we may call a more rational human state. His developments during this time is substantially shown in the history of primitive man. Some of the egos, outstripping the others, succeeded in reaching adeptship along certain lines, but the great mass of the people lived sensuous and sensual lives. There was little spirituality manifested by the race during this period, and perversion of natural laws and forces became marked toward its close."

However it appears that before Lemuria sank beneath the waters, according to varying occult beliefs, some managed to establish colonies in India. These colonists were Masters and Adepts, the so called cream of the Lemurian people.

It is claimed that it was these who built the rock temples of Elephanta and other great temples in India and gave the country its riches in literature and philosophy.

Meanwhile the degenerate Lemurians, who escaped the deluge, spread and populated Asia and Europe.

After Lemuria came Atlantis.

Well it's as good a theory as many others and the floods are similar to what happened in Genesis and in many stories and legends. The problem was that people like Helena Petrovna Blavatsky also supported the idea of Lemuria. She included this in her book The Secret Doctrine.

Blavatsky may well have helped to put the kibosh on the idea of Lemuria when she described the inhabitants as a race of hermaphroditic egg-laying ape-men who were the ancestral race of the Atlantean root race.

Plesiosaurs

Other writers in the early 1900s took on this idea of Lemuria with other strange ideas. William Scott-Elliot in 1904 wrote The Lost Lemuria and told of 12 foot tall Lemurians leading tame plesiosaurs on leashes.

The Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Cruscis (AMORC) told of Lemurians in their publications and Dion Fortune also described Lemuria in his teachings.

Like most things the idea of Lemuria went out of fashion even within many secret societies. Until that is, Sundaland was talked about by geologists.

It appears that at the end of the last Ice Age, some 11,000 years ago, sea levels rose and most of what is known as Sundaland was flooded - only the highlands remained as Malaysia and parts of Indonesia.

So maybe there was a Lemuria after all - though probably not with tame plesiosaurs!

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The Lessons Of Atlantis: The Lost Continent
The Druid Secret Alphabet Perhaps Used In Atlantis

The Druid Secret Alphabet Perhaps Used In Atlantis

Book of Ballymote - 1390AD - showing Ogham Language

There are occultists who claim that the alphabet of Ogham or Ogam may have been the written language of Atlantis. It is also said to be the secret language of the Druids. But is any of this true?

As far as I have seen there is no real connection between Ogham and Atlantis but there are connections with the Druids.

Ogam has been described as the Tree Language of the Druids. Each of the twenty-five letters (as seen on the left)  is associated with a specific tree. B with birch, L with rowan, F with alder, S with willow and so on.

The term Druid can be translated as 'forest sage' or 'magician' but the most likely meaning is 'wise person of the oak'. So a link there with Ogham.

What we can say for sure is that the alphabet was embraced in the Celtic culture of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England (Cornwall) and the Isle of Man dating from between the 4th and 7th centuries AD. There are said to be 300-500 Ogham inscriptions on stone monuments throughout Ireland and western Britain.

The Druids sometimes carve Ogham letters onto their wands.

The photo below shows an example of the alphabet used on a stone from Armagh, Ireland - known as the Drumconwell Ogham Stone, probably from about the year 400AD.

To encode a message or secret words in Ogham is quite easy.  Simply draw a vertical line and transpose letters into Ogham strokes.  There is one problem to this though as in the alphabet there are missing letters: J, K, P, W, X, Y and Z. So have to be careful as to what words are used.

Forgot to say that Ogham is believed to be named after the Gaulish god of Speech, Ogamus or Ogma.

Ogham Book of Ballymote 1390

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The Lessons Of Atlantis: The Lost Continent

Thousands of books and theories have been written about the lost continent of Atlantis, but what do we really know for sure? Well, nothing.

The story of Atlantis was initially generated by Plato but, even this, is only a version of what had been heard second or third hand.

If we think about it, there is no reason why a continent or country shouldn't have sunk beneath the oceans. Maybe that's what Noah in the Bible is all about. But let's look at Plato's original story.

The Atlantis story comes from two dialogues recorded by Plato: Timaeus and Critias. Critias was actually Plato's great-grandfather.

In Timaeus the discussion is about versions of the ideal state or country - Utopia if you like. Critias then gives his version of Atlantis - which he heard from his grandfather, who heard it from a friend of his fathers. So it is something that may well have been handed down over generations. The problem of this is, as with Chinese Whispers, the original version can become distorted over time.

Atlantis was thought to be nine, or maybe ten thousand years prior to Plato, though some will say only five thousand. Anyway, here is a translation of what is written in Timaeus:

"Our records tell how your city checked a great power which arrogantly advanced from its base in the Atlantic ocean to attack the cities of Europe and Asia, For in those days ... there was an island opposite the strait which you call the Pillars of Heracles (Straits of Gibraltar), an island larger than Libya and Asia combined.

On this island of Atlantis had arisen a powerful dynasty of kings, who ruled the whole island ... in addition they controlled Libya up to the borders of Egypt and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.

This dynasty, gathering its whole power together, attempted to enslave your country and ours and all the territory within the strait. It was Solon who led an alliance of Greeks ... who was forced to overcome the invaders and finally celebrated victory.

At a later time there were earthquakes and floods of extraordinary violence, and in a single dreadful day and night ... the island of Atlantis was swallowed up by the sea and vanished; that is why the sea in that area is impassable to navigation, which is hindered by mud ... the remains of the sunken island.

With Critias the story goes back to gods and the likes. It tells of how the gods divided up the Earth.

Athene was given Greece and founded the Athenian state and Poseidon received Atlantis.

Poseiden made love to one of the island's girls - Cleito - and had ten sons by her. Each of these sons became ruler of part of Atlantis, with the overall king being Atlas (thus the name Atlantis and Atlantic).

The ten sons, as Atlantean kings, met up every sixth year to discuss laws and to pass judgement on wrongdoers. All went well for a long time and high moral standards were kept. But then the residents and kings became ambitious and greedy and Zeus decided to punish them.

... and that's all we really know from the original Plato writings. From there on books and writings have developed and theories developed.


In the The History and Power of Mind, for example, Richard Ingalese writes that Atlantis stretched from Northern Africa to the West Indies and the people who incarnated as Atlanteans were those who had been on Lemuria - another sunken continent.

According to Ingalese Atlantis reached the highest point of development, but materialism swept over the continent (sounds familiar!) and people turned to sensual abandonment. "Atlantis became a continent where a few immensely wealthy, powerful and strong egos rules the majority of the people, and made them their slaves."

All of this brought a reaction - karma - and Atlantis suddenly became submerged. Before the continent sunk beyond trace the upright inhabitants were taken to other countries by the Adepts and other civilisations were originated. The most advanced people moved to North Africa and laid the foundations of the Egyptian Empire.

Though, at the present time, we cannot establish the first hand truth about Atlantis there may well still be lessons we can learn from the stories themselves - there is a certain familiarity.


The Maps:
Top: Atlantis by Patroclus Kampanakis. Originally drawn in 1891, first published in his book "The procataclysm Communication of the Two Worlds via Atlantis"

Middle: 1882 Map of the Atlantean Empire, from Ignatius Donelly's "Atlantis: the Antediluvian World" 1882.

Bottom: Map of Atlantis from "Mundus Subterraneus" by Athanasius Kircher, Amsterdam 1665