Atlantis, Plato, and Cycles of Time

Written history gives us a record, more or less, of the last 6000 years of human thought. We can see into the mind of an ancient resident of Egypt, Babylon or India from the writings he has left us. Beyond that 6000 year barrier, there are no written texts, no inscribed stones. We have mute tools and artworks and we have legends.

In the regions near the Atlantic Ocean the legend of a great flood is so common that a historical basis is very likely. And the civilization that was destroyed by that flood had a name that even today has great power: Atlantis.



Our knowledge of Atlantis is based on many minor bits of evidence - and one document that may rise to the level of history. That is a short section in a work by Plato called Critias. An ancestor of Plato named Solon traveled to Egypt about 600 BC and lived for a time in Sais (Zau), then the capital of Egypt and an ancient center of learning on the Nile Delta. Here he befriended the local priests and discussed many things with them.

The history held by that Egyptian temple reached much farther back in time than that known to the Greeks. "There have been, and there will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes." an aged priest told Solon.

"There is a story which even you (Greeks) have preserved, that once upon a time Phaethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt.

Phaeton, by Jan van Eyck c.1390 - 1441
"Now, this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth recurring at long intervals of time. When this happens, those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore; and from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing savior, saves and delivers us.

"When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among you herdsmen and shepherds on the mountains are the survivors, whereas those of you who live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea; but in this country (Egypt) neither at that time nor at any other does the water come from above on the fields, rather having always a tendency to come up from below, for which reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest."

These few words point directly at what so much else hints, that there have been cycles upon cycles of growth and decline, each cycle perhaps developing a different aspect of human consciousness, and each decaying and falling as the limits of human character are tested.

"The fact is," says the priest of Sais, " that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer sun does not prevent, the human race is always increasing at times, and at other times diminishing in numbers."


This pattern of expansion and decline is known to the Maya and the Vedas of India. It also can be seen in the cycles of the animal world. Growth is not a linear affair, after a time the rigidity of the past so constricts further expansion that in order to allow space for the new there must be an autumn and a winter.

Where our present-day civilization is in the cycle I leave to the imagination.


And what of Sais? Solon was told "all that has been written down of old ... is preserved in our temples".

No longer, it seems. 2600 years have all-but removed the temples of Sais from the surface of the Earth. The Delta is not as kind to ancient buildings as is the desert of Egypt and there is almost nothing to be seen in Sais today.

Hope remains - little archeological digging has yet been done there and increasingly subtle techniques can discern much that would previously be missed.

Perhaps an ancient storeroom of records will someday be found at Sais. Perhaps this knowledge of our lost human past, kept secret by countless generations of initiates only to be lost, (we assume), at the beginnings of the Christian era will be found again.



For more on Atlantis see the Ascending Passage: Atlantis Page

Ascending Passage is a website exploring Ancient Egypt with awe and wonder yet with respect for science. The proven historic facts of this ancient culture are amazing enough... AscendingPassage.com


Hints of great civilizations in the forgotten past are by no means confined to Egypt. AncientMystery.info looks at unanswered archaeological questions from around the world:AncientMystery.info

Edgar Cayce, Egypt, and Atlantis

Perhaps the grandest mystery of archeology is the origin of Egyptian civilization. We have only simple pottery and stone tools from the time period a few hundred years before the building of the pyramids - the largest and most accurate stone structures on the Earth. When pressed the archeologists will admit that there probably was a previous civilization, but it is a subject they prefer to avoid. Discussing pre-historic era Egyptian civilizations quickly gets too close to the forbidden "A" word:

Atlantis

Edgar Cayce was an American psychic who lived from 1877 to 1945. His belief was that our current problems and challenges are often continuations of issues from previous lives. Since, in his view, the current time is a reflection of portions of the Atlantian experience, many of his readings involved Atlantis.

According to Cayce, Atlantis was a highly developed civilization with technology comparable to ours, but based on different energies. This civilization first rose over 50,000 years ago but destroyed itself through misuse of an energy it obtained by feeding Solar energy through crystals into the Earth. Atlantian technology rose again only to be destroyed by internal warfare. It rose yet a third time, this time to be destroyed by flood, memories of which are in the Bible and are known to many other cultures.

Refugees from this third catastrophe emigrated to several places, including Egypt. There, on the Nile Delta they established a colony, eventually creating a high culture. It is the records of this culture that were studied by the builders of the Pyramids, and that formed the basis of Egyptian Art, Spirituality, and written Language.


This chronology from Edgar Cayce fits fairly well with the Ancient Egyptian's own tradition of the times of the Gods (Atlantis) and Companions of Horus (undiscovered pre-historic civilization on the Delta). The time given for Atlantis also coincides with the time of Cro-Magnon Man - early Homo Sapiens with refined features and a larger brain than we have today.

Cayce places the building of the Pyramid and Sphinx in the first (now lost) Egyptian civilization, about 12,000 years ago. If we accept Geologist Robert Schoch's analysis of the weathering of the Sphinx and the Sphinx Temple nearby, then this date is credible. The Pyramid referred to, perhaps, may be seen in the large stones at the base of Chephren's Pyramid (the second largest, which stands behind the Sphinx), allowing the currently standing pyramids to be the work (mostly) of historical Egypt, as the archeologists insist.

Edgar Cayce mentions that a great Hall of Records was carefully placed near the Sphinx and awaits discovery. A reading given by Cayce in 1933 says this Hall contains:
"A record of Atlantis from the beginning of those periods when the spirit took form, or began the encasements in that land; and the developments of the peoples throughout their sojourn; together with the record of the first destruction, and the changes that took place in the land .....(documents) that are as copies from the sunken Atlantis.

...The Sphinx ... was set later as the sentinel or guard and which may not be entered from the connecting chambers from the Sphinx's right paw until the time has been fulfilled ... Then it lies between the Sphinx and the river." (378-16; Oct. 29, 1933) (Quote from "Edgar Cayce on Atlantis" by Edgar Evans Cayce, page 148.)

There have been a number of attempts to find this Hall of Records, ground penetrating radar has found chambers or caves below the Sphinx and a drill core from nearby contained granite from Aswan, hundreds of miles upriver, but the Egyptian Department of Antiquities has so far refused to allow further exploration.


Portions of this entry and more information on Edgar Cayce and Atlantis can be found in the Atlantis section of the AscendingPassage website: Click here to go to the Atlantis Section


For a look at Egypt from a alternative perspective than that promoted by mainstream archeology: Click here to go to AscendingPassage.com


The pyramids have their own website, the many mysteries of these giant precisely built structures are still well beyond modern technology: Click here to go to the Pyramids


There are anomalous artifacts and meaningful mythology in many places throughout the world. AncientMystery.info explores the faint traces of a great and different ancient knowledge.Click here to go to http://ancientmystery.info/