Yoga of the Atlanteans

Atlantis was an archipelago consisting of two large islands situated in the Atlantic Ocean near the Mediterranean Sea. There existed the highly developed civilization of the Atlanteans. The most important point about this civilization is that it possessed the true religious-philosophical knowledge, which allowed many people to advance quickly in their development — up to the Divine level — and accomplish thus their personal human evolution.

However, with time the Atlantis’ spiritual culture degraded, and as a result the power in the country was taken over by aggressive people, who preferred black magic and domination over others rather than the principle of the true spiritual development. Then God made the islands of Atlantis sink into the ocean.

But the higher spiritual knowledge was preserved by some Atlanteans, Who achieved Divinity. They brought it into Egypt and other countries, where this knowledge existed for some time providing a basis for the local spiritual culture.

* * *

In the pyramids of South America Dr.M.Doreal discovered ancient writings composed by Thoth-the-Atlantean. They are called The Emerald Tablets. What do they contain?

In the beginning of the text, Thoth-the-Atlantean describes the reason for the destruction of Atlantis: the confidential knowledge was imparted to unworthy people and the latter began to use it for evil purposes. They also began to make bloody sacrifices, and this resulted in incarnations of hellish beings among people.

When the destruction of Atlantis happened (two islands submerged into the ocean one after another according to the Divine Will), Thoth-the-Atlantean moved to Egypt (Khem) with a group of other Divine Atlanteans.

… Then Thoth relates that He went the entire Path to Mergence with the Primordial Consciousness. He writes that anyone can traverse this Path. The Path necessarily contains obstacles, which create difficulties for travelers: these difficulties prevent weak, ethically unworthy, or intellectually immature people from going further. “Go! But do not take with you the unwise, insincere, weak!” says Thoth.

Thoth gives basic recommendations for initial harmonization of the chakra system. For fulfilling just these recommendations He promises health and longevity. (This is the level of work on the stage of raja yoga).

On the higher stages of meditative practices (i.e. on the stage of buddhi yoga), one has to dive with the consciousness into the Depths of the multidimensional space and cognize there “star worlds” and the Light of the Great Fire on the Path to the Abode of the Primordial. There are also other spatial dimensions, which are “vacant to all seeming, yet hidden within them are the keys”.

Thoth also explains one of the higher meditations — the Temple and its particular variation — the Pyramid.

… About the history of His own spiritual ascent Thoth says the following:

“Once in a time long forgotten, I, Thoth, opened the doorway, penetrated into other spaces and learned of the secrets concealed.

“Often did I journey down the dark pathway* unto the space where the Light* ever glows.

“Long then dwelt I in the Temple of the Primordial until at last I was One with the Light.”

* * *

Thoth gives the following directions to spiritual seekers:

Preserve and keep the command of the Primordial One:

Look in your life for disorder and get rid of it! Balance and order your life!

Quell all the chaos of emotions and you shall have harmony in life.

Conquer by silence the bondage of words.

Keep ever your eyes on the Light!

Know My commandments! Keep them and fulfill them, and I will be with you, helping and guiding you into the Light!

Out of the darkness shall you rise upward, one with the Light!

Man has to strive to become the Divine Sun*.

Follow this Path and you shall be One with the All!*

Light comes only to him who strives. Hard is the Pathway that leads to the Wisdom; hard is the Pathway that leads to the Light. Many shall you find the stones in your pathway: many the mountains to climb toward the Light.

Man, know that always beside you walk the Messengers of Light. Open to all is Their Pathway, to all who are ready to walk into the Light!

They are Messengers of Light to shine among men. Like man are They and yet are unlike.*

Know that many dark shadows shall fall on your light striving to quench with the shadows of darkness the light of the soul that strives to be free. Many the pitfalls that lie on this Way. Seek ever to gain Greater Wisdom! Cognize — you shall know the Light!

Light is eternal and darkness is fleeting. Seek ever, O man, for the Light! Know ever that as Light fills your being, darkness for you shall soon disappear!

Open the soul to the Messengers of Light! Let Them enter and fill you with Light!

Keep ever your face to this Goal!

… Open the soul, O man, to the cosmos and let it “flow” through you as one with the soul!

Man’s evolution consists in the process of changing to forms that are not of this world. Grows he in time to the formless — to live on a higher plane. Know that you must become formless before you can be one with the Light.*

Listen, O man, to My voice, telling of pathways to Light, showing the way of attainment: how you shall become one with the Light:

Search first the mysteries of the Earth’s Heart! Seek the Flame of the Living Earth! Bathe in the glare of this Flame!

Know, O man, you are complex, a being of matter and of flame. Let your flame* shine out brightly! Be you only the Flame!

Seek ever more Wisdom! Find it in the Depths of the Flame! Know that only by your striving can Light pour into you!

Only the one, who of Light has the fullest, can hope to pass by the guards of the Way, who prevent unworthy people from entering it.

You shall cognize yourself as Light and make yourself ready to pass on the Way.

Wisdom is hidden in darkness. When shining with Soul-Flame, find you the Wisdom, then shall you be born again as Light, and then shall you become the Divine Sun.

Grow into One with the Light! Be a channel of Divine Principles to the world of men!

Seek, O man, to find the great Pathway that leads to eternal Life — through the image of the Divine Sun!

… Know, O man, you are only a soul! The body is nothing! The soul is everything! Let not your body be a fetter!

Cast off the darkness and travel in Light! Learn to cast off your body, O man, and be free from it! Become the true Light and unite then with the Great Light!*…

Know that throughout the space the eternal and infinite Consciousness exists. Though from superficial knowledge It is hidden, yet still forever exists.

The key to these Higher worlds is within you; it can be found only within!*

Open the gateway within you, and surely you, too, shall live the true life!

… Man, you think that you live… but know that your former life can lead you only to death. For as long as you are bound to your body, no true life exists for you! Only the soul which is free from the material world has life which is a really true life! All else is only a bondage, a fetter from which to be free!

Think not that man is born for the earthly! Though born on the Earth, he is a light-like spirit! Yet, without true knowledge he can never become free!

… Darkness surrounds the souls seeking to be born in Light. Darkness fetters souls… Only the one who is seeking may ever hope for Freedom!

Let you be the Divine Sun of the Great Light! Fulfill this and you shall be free!

The Great Light that fills all the cosmos is willing to help you, O man! Make you of your body a torch of Light that shall shine among men!

… Hear and understand: the Divine Flame is the source of all things; all things are Its Manifestation!

Seek to be One with the Divine Sun!

Hold your thought on uniting the Light with your human body!*

Light is the Source of all the life; for without the Great Light nothing can ever exist!

Know, Light is the basis of all formed matter.

Know, O man, that all space is filled by worlds within worlds.

Deep beneath the image of Pyramid lies My secret. Seek and find it in the Pyramid I built.*

Follow this key I left for you. Seek and the doorway to the true Life shall be yours! Seek in My Pyramid deep beneath it, and in the Wall.*

Know that it is in the Pyramid I built that you shall find the secret way into the true Life.

… Seek and find there That which I have hidden!

… Know We that of all, nothing else matters excepting the growth one can gain with the soul. Know We the flesh is fleeting. The things men count great are nothing to Us. The things We expect from you are not of your bodies but are only the perfected state of the souls.

When you can learn that nothing but progress of the soul can count in the end, then truly you are free from all bondage, free to work in accordance with your predestination!

Know, O man, you are to aim at Perfection, for only thus can you attain to the Goal!

Know that the future is never in fixation but follows man’s free will!

Know that your body when in perfect balance may never be touched by the finger of death! Aye, even “accident” may only approach when you abandon your predestination! When you are in harmony with your predestination, you shall live on in time and not taste of death.

… Know you not that in the Earth’s Heart is the source of harmony of all things that exist and have been on its face? By the soul you are connected with the Earth’s Heart, and by your flesh — with the matter of Earth.*

When you have learned to maintain harmony in yourself, then shall you draw on from the harmony of the Earth’s Heart. Exist then shall you while Earth is existing, changing in form, only when Earth, too, shall change: tasting not of death, but one with this planet, living in your body till all pass away.

… Three are the qualities of God in His Light-Home*: Infinite Power, Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Love.

Three are the powers given to spiritual Masters: to transmute evil, to assist good, to use discrimination.

Three are the things They manifest: Power, Wisdom, and Love.

Three are the Manifestations of Spirit creating all things: Divine Love possessing the perfect knowledge, Divine Wisdom knowing all possible means of helping living beings in their development, Divine Power which is possessed by the Primordial Consciousness Whose essence is Divine Love and Wisdom.

Darkness and Light are both of one nature, different only in seeming, for each arose from one Source. Darkness is chaos. Light is Divine Harmony. Darkness transmuted is Light.

This is, My children, your purpose in being: transmutation of darkness into Light!”

* * *

Later Thoth-the-Atlantean incarnated again in Egypt as Hermes Trismegistus (i.e. Thriceborn). The latter term concerns not incarnations but stages of spiritual advancement: that is born in the world of matter, then in the world of the Holy Spirit, and then in the Abode of the Creator.

There is a record of His addressing the Egyptians:

“I began preaching to people the beauty of religion and knowledge.

“O people, men born on Earth, who indulge in drunkenness, sleep, and the ignorance of God! Sober up, cease your surfeit, awake from your dullness!

“Why do you give up yourselves to death while you have power to partake of Immortality?

“Depart from the dark path, be partakers of Immortality, abandon forever your vices!

“Nowhere but in God can you find good!”

There is also a short text written by Hermes Himself. It is called The Emerald Tablet:

“I say here only truth and nothing else!

“That which is below is similar to that which is above. And that which is above is similar to that which is below. One has to know this in order to gain the cognition of the marvelous Primordial One!*

“Everything material came into existence by the intent of the Primordial One. All material objects became manifest through densification of the energy by the Primordial One.

“The Sun* is the Father of the manifested world; the “lunar”* is its mother.

“The Holy Spirit “brings up” developing souls; the Earth nurtures them. The Father of all the development in the entire universe is present always and everywhere.

“His Power is the Supreme Power! It is supreme to everything else! And It is manifested on the Earth — in Its Omnipotence!

“Thus you should divide: the “earthly” — and the Fiery, the coarse — and the subtle! Act, at that, with great caution, awe, and understanding!

“Become the Subtlest Fire — and cognize the Heavenly! Thus you achieve the Mergence. Then come back to the Earth — and you will perceive the Subtlest and will have power to transform effectively the imperfect.

“This will mean that you have achieved the glory of Mergence with the Primordial One and rid yourself of the darkness of ignorance.

“The Power of the Primordial One is present beneath everything: beneath both the subtlest and the coarse — and controls them. It is in this way that the Creation exists. And thanks to this marvelous connectedness of Everything the development goes on.

“This is why My name is Hermes Thriceborn: for I act in all three planes of existence and possess the wisdom of the entire universe!

“Thus I have said everything I wanted to say about the doing of the Sun.”

* * *

These principles were the basis of the ancient Egyptian spiritual culture. But with time it degraded and disappeared, as it happens to all spiritual cultures. (It is described in more detail in the book Spiritual Heart. The Religion of Unity).

But now we return this knowledge in all of its fullness to modern people. Realize it and you, too, may call yourselves Trismegistus if you like! Though the main thing is spiritual achievements rather than names and titles.

* * *

The spiritual work in Atlantis was directed by Divine Adler. Let me cite His words about this:

“Atlantis was My work: from the very beginning till the end I created the spiritual culture of Atlantis. From there it moved partly to Egypt.

“I took with Me worthy people and led them into Myself — an incarnation after incarnation, a wave after wave. Thus I incarnated there several times.”

One can find more details about this in our book Classics of Spiritual Philosophy and the Present.

The potential of the spiritual Schools of Atlantis allowed many people to approach Divinity or even to achieve it. Among Them we know Cairo, Nikifor, Odin.

After the destruction of Atlantis, many Divine Atlanteans brought higher spiritual knowledge to Egypt and other countries. Moreover, many of Them incarnated among people as Messiahs, Avatars. For example, Odin told the following about it:

“I am going to tell you about the Aesir, as They are called in Scandinavian legends and sagas. They were the Atlanteans Who assumed responsibility for the destiny of people on the Earth after the destruction of Atlantis.

“They were not many. But Their life span was much longer than that of other people living on the Earth at that time. They lived in the body for 300-500 years; it was normal for the Atlanteans. People remembered Them as Gods coming down from Heavens and ruling the Earth. They would come to the Earth again and again, taking mortal women for wives, and this would bind Them to the material plane… Yet in every incarnation, They would bring the new mortal body to the Fullness of the Divine Awareness…

“As Bright Suns of Divine Consciousness They guided the life on the Earth…

“I was one of Them…

“For many lives I came to the Creation and every time connected the embodied part of Myself-Consciousness with the Consciousness of the Creator.”

* * *

We learned about Atlantis and the life of the Atlanteans from Cairo, Who achieved Divinity in His incarnation in Atlantis; the name Cairo, by the way, in Atlantis meant Earth (as a living organism):

“I was one of the five Atlantean rulers. There was a group of five rulers-elders, and I was its leader. I represented the temporal power which possessed spiritual knowledge.

“The history of civilization, the history of the spiritual life on the Earth is more ancient than modern people think it is. Atlantis was not the beginning of the spiritual development on the Earth. It was only one of a number of big stages. Many times the configuration of the oceans and continents changed, and the Dweller of the Depths created every time new conditions for growth and development of souls.

“The story of Atlantis can be useful for modern people. Adler, Thoth, and I can tell everything important of it.

“In Atlantis there existed a great civilization. The leaders of that society possessed the highest spiritual knowledge.

“The leaders of society, who direct the spiritual growth of people, bear great responsibility. Even a smallest deviation from the principles of Divine Love and Selflessness may become a turning to the abyss where one loses the connection with the Creator! This is exactly what happened in Atlantis (the power was taken over by selfish people), and God decided to end this period of the development of consciousnesses on the Earth — to destroy Atlantis.

“… I will tell you also about the Temple.

“The image of a temple is not a human invention. The Temple is a Divine structure in the multidimensional organism of a living planet. Its most close equivalent is Shambhala — i.e. the place inside the planet where Divine Consciousnesses live in the Highest spatial dimension; it has an exit to the Boundless Ocean of the Creator’s Consciousness.

“The Temple is the epicenter of the creation of life on the planet. It is the place where abide Those Who supervise the development of life on this islet of the Divine Creation.

“The Temple has an ‘exit’ and an ‘entrance’. This Divine structure in the multidimensional organism of the Earth is as real as the kundalini in the multidimensional organism of man. In the Atmic component of the human organism there is memory about the past incarnations — and it is the same with the Temple: by submerging into the Temple one can learn about important episodes of the planet’s life. For example, one can read the pages of the history of Atlantis — to learn about the Atlanteans of Spirit: about Adler, Thoth, and Others, who ‘interwove’ Themselves (as Consciousnesses) into the life of the planet — for the sake of the development of consciousnesses growing on the Earth.

“Originally, all rulers of Atlantis throughout centuries had the ‘keys to the Temple’; that is, they lived coming out as Brahmanic Consciousnesses from the Temple and had the ability to immerse and to dissolve their Divine Individualities in the Ocean of the Creator’s Consciousness. In this way the Atlantean civilization was guided and developed.

“Pyramids and other earthly temples are but a reflection of the Temple where the initiation of souls was performed.

“Every planet is created as densification of the energy of Consciousness up to the material plane. Then there starts the process of the development of life in material carriers.

“The souls incarnated in Atlantis had gone through incarnations on other planets. They were well-advanced souls but not Divine yet. The majority of the Atlanteans lived being aware of themselves as souls rather than material bodies. They enjoyed the intense feelings of life in a physical body. The power of such feelings is much more impressive than a paradisiacal life without a body. This power of feelings was delightful for souls who lived for a long time in the non-incarnate state. They lived in the states close to Samadhi, and one could call it a paradise on the Earth. For many of them it was the last or prior to the last incarnation, and the conditions were quite favorable for attainment of Divinity by them.

“The Atlantean educational system included the skills of psychical self-regulation, the knowledge about the structure of the multidimensional universe, ethics and different kinds of art, creativity in science and technology, which were developed to a high level.

“For those who had chosen for themselves realization of the highest meaning of life — cognition of the Creator — there were spiritual initiations. This type of education was closed, esoteric; it was accessible only to those who understood the higher meaning and purpose of their lives. Among their Teachers there were Divine Souls possessing material bodies, which are used as instruments of Divine Creativity in such cases.

“The long existence of the Atlantean civilization allowed many paradisiacal souls to complete the cycle of evolution and to merge into the Creator. They did not need to incarnate again any more.

“As for the Atlanteans who, upon receiving physical bodies, chose the path of material self-gratification, through sex in particular, — through them new human races were created. They were races of people who grew then as consciousnesses on this planet — new ‘shoots’ of young souls to go through the long process of evolution.

“Such a mixture of races resulted in many legends and myths about gods in different nations. Elisabeth Haich described very precisely that in that time on the Earth there were races of people with very different level of development of consciousnesses and bodies. The mixture of these races through sex and birth of offspring accelerated significantly the process of evolution.

“As for Those Who achieved Mergence with the Creator — They have never incarnated again, except for a few Who chose to take care of the new generations of people. Among the latter are Those Who wished together with Adler to guide people on the Path of self-realization and cognition of the Divine Oneness. They incarnated again and again bringing to people the knowledge about the Highest.

“All this is a very long process taking millennia; you will have a chance to participate in it too.”

* * *

Let me finish this conversation with the following words of Adler:

“It is the traditions of Atlantis that Pythagoras wanted to restore through His School. And We try to do this today with your help.

“The World of Divine Souls is willing to tell people about the main and most significant for humanity task of the evolution of consciousnesses.

“It includes the stage of transformation of the consciousness-soul into a spiritual heart, when man-animal becomes truly man! It is the stage when one begins to learn Divinity.”

Vladimir Antonov, Ph.D. (in biology)
(chapter from the book
Forest Lectures on the Highest Yoga)

Translated from Russian
by Mikhail Nikolenko