Funeral Wisdom of the World

Somewhere, beyond the snowpeaks of the Himalayas lies a mythical kingdom Shambhala. The kingdom is a society, where all the inhabitants are enlightened. Its capital city is Kalapa. Shambhala is ruled by a line of king known as Kaliki kings. When the world declines into war and greed, and all is lost, the twenty-fifth Kalki king will emerge from Shambhala with a huge army to vanquish “Dark Forces” and usher in a worldwide Golden Age. It will happen somewhere in 2424 AD. This is what I found from Kalachakra tantra, while researching myths and legends for my web analytics company.

This beautiful story came to us from Tibetan Buddhist tradition. According to this legend, Buddha taught the Kalachakra tantra in Shambhala upon the request of King Suchandra. So, part of Buddha’s teachings is still preserved in the kingdom.Word Shambhala itself is derived from Sanscrit which means place of tranquility and happiness. It is mentioned in various ancient texts, including Kalachakra tantra and the ancient text of the Zhang Zhung culture that even predated Tibetan Buddhism. As with many concepts in the Kalachakra Tantra, the idea of Shambhala has alternative” meanings. Shambhala is not an ordinary country. It exists as a physical place, although only individuals with the appropriate karma can reach it and experience it as such. One can not actually arrive there, unless he has the merit and the actual karmic association.

Various cultures place Shambhala in central Asai, north or west of Tibet. Some texts identify it with the Sutlej Valley in Himachal Pradesh. Mongolians name the location of Shambala at certain valleys of southern Siberia. But they all see Shambhala kingdom as enlightened society that people of all faiths can aspire to and actually realize. The path to this is provocatively described as the practice of warriorship — meeting fear and transcending aggression, and of secular sacredness — joining the wisdom of the past and one’s own culture with the present.  Shambhala teachings inspired numerous educational, artistic, and spiritual institutions, including Naropa University, Shambhala Training, Shambhala Sun, the Shambhala School, Shambhala Institute, and many others.

Tibet was largely closed to outsiders until very recently, and so what information was available about the tradition of Shambhala was haphazard at best. The first information that reached western civilization about Shambhala came from the Portuguese Catholic missionaries João Cabral and Estêvão Cacella who had heard about Shambala and thought it was another name for China. In 1627 they headed to Tashilhunpo, the seat of the Panchen Lama and, discovering their mistake, returned to India. Later esoteric writers further emphasized and elaborated on the concept of a hidden land inhabited by a hidden mystic brotherhood whose members labor for the good of humanity. There were numerous Tibetan expeditions to discover Shambhala, but all in vain.

This news caused quite a stir in the Western world. Augustus Le Plongeon, a nineteen century traveler, writer, and antiquarian just returned from the Maya ruins in Yucatan peninsula. Upon his return he made a sensational announcement. He stated that he managed to translate ancient Mayan writings. These writings showed that the Maya of Yucatan were older than later civilizations of Egypt and Atlantis. They also told the story of even older continent of Mu, which had perished like Atlantis and, that its survivors founded the Maya civilization. During my research in local web analytics company, I learned that Le Plongeon mistranslated the writings, to put it mildly.

This is, basically, how the myth of the hypothetical lost continent Mu started. Very soon, this myth got second birth: it was popularized in the serious of books written by James Churchward. In a short time he created New Age type of a book Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man. It was followed by the book The Children of Mu, then by The Lost Continent Mu and The Sacred Symbols of Mu. These books enjoyed wild success at the times, and even now have their devotees.

One can say, that even nowadays the search for a lost continent of Mu is still in progress. There were multiple researches on Mu and expeditions to various locations. Some called Easter Island a mountain top of a submerged continent of Mu. One well-known institute even suggested that underwater structures off the coast of Okinawa, Japan, were the ruins of Mu without any real scientific evidence. Some marine biologists stated that they identified the ruins of an ancient city off the coast of Japanese Yonaguni island as the remnants of an Asian equivalent of Atlantis and, that it was sunk three thousand years ago during an earthquake.

Agartha is a legendary city that is said to reside in the Earth core. My coworkers from from web analytics company told me that today the word Agartha is related to the Hollow Earth theory and is a popular subject in esotericism. Agartha is one of the most common names cited for the society of underground dwellers. While once a popular concept, in the last century little serious attention has been paid to these conjectures, and the theory is not supported by modern science. The idea of subterranean worlds may have been inspired by ancient religious beliefs in Hades, Sheol, and Hell. For several centuries, there appeared theories that named various locations of the entrances to Agartha. Among them Great Pyramid of Giza, Brazilian Mato Grosso and Manaus, North and South poles, Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

Since 19 century, the myths of Agartha tricked into fictional works. An early source for the belief in underground civilizations is the book The Smoky God written by Willis George Emerson in the beginning of 20th century. It claims to be the biography of a Norwegian sailor named Olaf Jansen. The book explains how Jansen’s sloop sailed through an entrance to the Earth’s interior at the North Pole. For two years he lived with the inhabitants of an underground network of colonies who, were a full 12 feet tall and whose world was lit by a “smoky” central sun. Their capital city was something like the original Garden of Eden. While Emerson does not use the name Agartha, later works such as Agartha - Secrets of the Subterranean Cities have identified the civilization Jansen encountered with Agartha, and its citizens as Agarthan.

According to Secrets, one of the underground colonies, was also the seat of government for the network. While the whole place is an inner continent, its satellite colonies are smaller enclosed ecosystems located just beneath the Earth’s crust or discreetly within mountains. Cataclysms and wars taking place on the surface drove these people underground. The Sahara, Gobi, the Australian Outback and the deserts of the southwestern US are said to be but a few examples of the devastation that resulted. The sub-cities were created as refuges for the people and as safe havens for sacred records, teachings and technologies that were cherished by these ancient cultures.

The inhabitants of Agartha are said to have scientific knowledge and expertise far beyond that of the people who live on the surface of the planet, and lost technology from the days of Atlantis. They all follow what is known as the Ancient Path and do not interfere in the lives of humans that live above the surface. Nor is there any interaction between them. All entrances to Agartha from any other part of the planet are hidden safely. They are secured by illusory technology that is beyond the comprehension of modern science.

One of the most controversial tales of inner-Earth-dwellers is the so-called Shaver Mystery. In 1945 a story was published by some Richard Shaver, who claimed he had recently been the guest of what remained of an underground civilization. Although few really believed the story, Shaver always averred that his story was true. He contended that the Elder Race, or Titans, came to this planet from another solar system in our prehistoric past. After a time of living on the surface, they realized our sun was causing them to age prematurely, so they escaped underground, building huge subterranean complexes in which to live. Eventually, they decided to seek a new home on a new planet, evacuating the Earth and leaving behind their underground cities populated by artificial beings: detrimental robots and integrated robots. It was these beings that Shaver claimed to have met. Despite the enormous popularity of the Shaver Mystery the location of the entrance to this underground world was never divulged.

We often use word Shangri-la in a similar context to Garden of Eden, It means for us some kind of a perfect paradise that exists hidden from modern man. In some cases we use it as an analogy for a life-long quest or something elusive that is much sought by man in the form of love, happiness, or Utopian ideals. Shangri-la has its place with other mythical and famous examples such as The Holy Grail, El Dorado, The Fountain of Youth. But, in fact, this word came to us from… fiction. This word first appeared in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. In the book, Shangri-La is a mystical, harmonious valley, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. The novel was so popular, that this word became synonymous with any earthly paradise but particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia. From my web analytics company archives I found, that the author based the story of Shangri-La is based on the concept of Shambhala, a mystical city in Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

It is getting funnier, though. As years rolled by, several locations in the Buddhist Himalaya between northern India and Tibet claimed to be the basis for Hilton’s legend, largely to attract tourism. A popularly believed inspiration for Shangri-La is the Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan, close to the Tibetan border, which Hilton visited a few years before Lost Horizon was published. Being an isolated green valley surrounded by mountains, enclosed on the western end of the Himalayas, it closely matches the description in the novel. A Shangri-La resort in the nearby Skardu valley is another popular tourist attraction.A number of modern Shangri-La pseudo-legends have developed since 1933 in the wake of the novel and the film made from it. Even crazy Nazis had an enthusiasm for Shangri-La, where they hoped to find an ancient master race, similar to the Nordic race, unspoiled by Buddhism. They sent one understandably unsuccessful expedition to Tibet in 1938.

As of today, various places in China still claim the title, including the tourist destinations of Lijiang and Zhongdian. Sichuan and Tibet also claim the real Shangri-La was in its territory. In 2001, Tibet Autonomous Region proposed that the three regions optimise all Shangri-la tourism resources and promote them as one. Also in 2001, Zhongdian County in northwestern Yunnan officially renamed itself Shangri-La County. Country of Bhutan, which was until now isolated from outside world and has its unique form of Tibetan Buddhism, has been hailed as the last Shangri-La.

In my previous blog entry I was telling my readers about lost lands, lost places and lost cities. Well, as our reader correctly pointed out, we can also call them mythical or mythological places. I am easy and will not argue about terminology. The most important thing to me is that these places might have existed in earlier times but their actual location is now lost. After all, there is often some scientific, historical or archaeological evidence, as well as myths and legends that indicate such places may have existed or are awaiting discovery, or, the way I put it, rediscovery. It was not an easy task to compile the list of such places. I would not be surprised that I missed some of these names as well. Some kind souls from my local web analytics company were pro-actively helping me to compile the list. I will, probably, try to tell you about each of these lost lands (or “mythological places) in my future blog entries. So read on. And by the way, the list is down below.

• Agartha. A legendary city that supposedly resides in the Earth’s core.
• Annwn. The “afterworld” of Welsh mythology.
• Atlantis. The legendary lost continent that was supposed to have sunk into the Atlantic Ocean; there are many differing opinions on what and where Atlantis was.
• Avalon. Legendary Island of Apples in the British Isles. It is believed by some to be the final resting place of King Arthur.
• Ayotha Amirtha Gangai. An instrumental river in Ayyavazhi mythology.
• Biarmaland - A mighty kingdom described in Norse sagas as lying to the north of Russia
• Camelot - Supposedly the city from which King Arthur reigned.
• City of the Caesars - A city between a mountain of gold and another of diamonds supposed to be situated in Patagonia.
• Cockaigne - In medieval mythology, it is a land of plenty where want does not exist.
• Garden of Eden - The original birthplace and home of humanity according to Abrahamic religions. The first humans were banished from it after disobeying God and it was destroyed in a Deluge.
• El Dorado - Rumored city of gold in South America.
• Hawaiki - The ancestral island of the Polynesians, particularly the Māori.
• Heaven - According to many religions, the place in which noble souls reside.
• Hell - According to many religions, the place in which evil souls reside.
• Lemuria - A supposed “lost land” that was found in either the Indian or Pacific Ocean.
• Lyonesse - A fingerlike spit of land that was many believe once branched off the southwestern coast of Cornwall in England.
• Mag Mell or Tir na nÓg - The afterworld of Irish mythology; it is similar in many respects to the Norse Valhalla.
• Mu - It is believed to be a sunken continent in the Pacific Ocean. It is often confused with Lemuria.
• Nibiru - A mythological planet described by the Babylonians.
• Phaeton - A hypothetical planet between Mars and Jupiter that was suggested by Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers. He supposed that the planet’s destruction formed the Asteroid Belt. Some scientists refer to this proposed planet as Tiamat.
• Quivira and Cíbola - Two of the legendary Seven Cities of Gold supposed by Spanish conquistadors to have existed in the Americas.
• Kingdom of Saguenay. In Algonquin Indian belief, it was a rich city of blonde men that existed in Canada prior to the French colonization of the landmass. It is currently believed to have been a city of early, unrecorded European colonists.
• Kvenland. Land next to Sweden at the northern shores of Baltic sea, probably ancient Finland or some of its parts
• Shambhala. In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, this kingdom is hidden somewhere in the Himalayas.
• Shangri-La. A peaceful, isolated land in the Himalayas suggested by British author James Hilton.
• Terra Australis Incognita. The great unknown southern land that cartographers believed occupied most of the southern hemisphere until Captain James Cook discovered and circumnavigated Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica.
• Thule. An island that was supposed to have existed somewhere in the belt of Scandinavia, northern Great Britain, Iceland, and Greenland.
• Thuvaraiyam Pathi. In Ayyavazhi mythology, it was a sunken island some 150 miles off the south coast of India.
• Ys. A city located in Brittany, France that was supposedly built below sea level, protected by a dam, and eventually destroyed when the Devil released the water held back by the dam.

As I already mentioned, I am a big fan of astrology. But I did not have the idea how it progressed in the United States.  The birth of modern astrology took place in the first half of the 20th century. That is what I learned from the annals of local web analytics company.

So, that is how it was in the beginning… In the first half of twentieth century a great surge of popular interest in astrology took place in the US. A very popular astrologer Evangeline Adams from New York City helped quench the public’s thirst for astrology readings with many accurate forecasts. Adams was even arrested and charged with illegal fortunetelling in 1914. But the case was dismissed when Adams correctly read the horoscope of the judge’s son provided with just his birth date. Her acquittal set a precedent, establishing that astrologers can practice freely and was not guilty of any wrongdoing.

The wave of interest towards astrology even increased by wide distribution of astrological journals, text, papers, and textbooks throughout the United States. Astrologers became celebrities, like, for example, Alan Leo, Sepharial, Paul Cheisnard and Charles Carter. The serious and complex writings on astrological practice and concepts in America progressed into a new period of popular. Many complex astrological materials were simplified to attempt to carve a clear line through points of contention and controversy.

Great public interest in astrology made publishers realize that millions of readers were interested in astrological forecasts and the interest grew ever more intense with the advent of America’s entry into the First World War. The war heightened interest in astrology. Journalists began to write articles based on character descriptions and astrological forecasts were published in newspapers based on the one and only factor known to the public: the month and day of birth, as taken from the position of the Sun when a person is born. The result of this practice led to modern-day publishing of Sun-Sign astrology columns and expanded to some astrological books and magazines in second half of the twentieth century.

I receive a lot of letters about ancient astrology. It is an interesting subject. Call me superstitious, but where do we turn in the times of crisis? I also like to study biographies of classical composers. I even started a separate blog on this subject. If you would like to know more, please, feel free to visit my blog. Well, back to ancient astrology. It turns out that the distinctive Mayan calendar and Mayan astrology have been in use in Meso-America from at least the 6th Century BC. There were two main calendars, one plotting the solar year of 365 days, which governed the planting of crops and other domestic matters; the other called the Tzolkin of 260 days, which governed ritual use. Each was linked to an elaborate astrological system to cover every facet of life.

On the fifth day after the birth of a boy, the Mayan astrologer-priests would cast his horoscope to see what his profession was to be: soldier, priest, civil servant or sacrificial victim. A 584 day Venus cycle was also maintained, which tracked the appearance and conjunctions of Venus. Planet Venus was seen as a generally inauspicious and baleful influence, and Mayan rulers often planned the beginning of warfare to coincide with when Venus rose. There is evidence that the Maya also tracked the movements of Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, and possessed a zodiac of some kind. The Mayan name for the constellation Scorpio was also ’scorpion’, isn’t it something?

There is evidence for other constellations being named after various beasts, but it remains unclear. The most famous Mayan astrological observatory still intact is the Caracol observatory in the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in modern day Mexico.