MARKHAM HOUSE PRESS, LTD.
THE

ORDEE BOOK SEBVICE.

\ \ATLANTEAN RESEARCH
Official Organ of

ART AND LIFE IN ANCIENT MEXICO
by
COTTIE A. BURLAND.

TH E

A N CIEN T M EXICO h as alw a y s had a grea t fascination n ot

only for th e h istorian and an th rop ologist b u t for everybody inter­
ested in th e h isto ry of m ankind on it s w ay from barbarism tocivilisation . The grandiose ruins of M exico are am ong th e m ost
im pressive m onum ents of th is stru g g le. Som e of th eir m ysteries
h ave been solved by lo n g years of research, m any are s till elu dingu s. B u t th e w ork is p rogressin g all th e tim e and hardly a m onthp asses w ith o u t new and im p ortan t discoveries being m ade.

T H E BOOK AND T H E R E A D E R :W hile th u s opening a new field to th e reader, th e book w ill a t
th e sam e tim e be invaluab le to th e stu d e n t th rou gh n o te s andapp en dixes on M exican w ritin g and on th e com plicated Calendricalsy stem of w hich th e auth or g iv es for th e first tim e a com prehen­sible and lucid in terp retation . The book is illu stra te d by m any
lin e draw ings of M exican G lyphs ta k e n from th e an cien t docu­
m en ts. There is also a glossary, an e x ten siv e bibliography and acom prehensive lis t of all w ell know n M exican M SS sources.
The illu str a tio n s, som e of which have n o t been reproduced
before, reveal th e asto n ish in g richness of public and p rivate collec­
tio n s in th is country and w ill com e as a su rp rise to m any in th eir
close afiin ity to m odern art. I t is perhaps sign ifican t th a t one ofth e m o st im p ortan t pieces com es from th e collection o f H en ry
M oore.

GROUP

February/ March, 1950.

CONTENTSPage
ATLANTIS :European Literature since 1914.
By Egerton Sykes

81

By Egerton Sykes.

85

Orichalcum.

The Orichalcum of the Atlantians.

TH E AUTHOR:

0.
A . B urland , to-d ay one of our lead in g youn g A m erican ists,
h as already m ade im p ortan t contrib utions to th e in terp reta tio n ofth e docum ents and m anu scripts in our p ossession . H e h as th e rareg ift of r ela tin g scien tific r esu lts in a v iv id lan gu age, w ith a keen
sen se o f th e dram a behind th e fa c ts and th e e x citem e n t behindth eir discovery.

CENTRE

Vol. 2. No. 6.

W ith 47 h a lf-to n e illu stra tio n s and m any lin e draw ings fromth e an cien t M SS.
Crown 4to. 112 pages. P o s t free 16 /6 d . or $2.50.
P u b lish ed by B runo Cassirer.

R ES E A R C H

By Ivan Tournier.

86

By Michael Kamienski.

88

H OERBIGEE:
The Birth of the Moon.

Tiahuanacao—The Next Stage.
By Edmund Kiss.
AVALON;
Earth Lodge and Eternal House.
By C. A. Burland.
Thanet Archaeological Society.
Letter from Edmund Kiss.

Editor: EGERTON SY K ES .

MARKHAM HOUSE PRESS, LTD.,31, King’s Road, Loudon, S.W.3,
B.T.a.. 463-5. Fulham Koad, 8.W.10.

92

Annual Subscription 12/6, or U.S.A. $1.75. Post Free.
Single Number, 2/- or 30 Cents.
Regittered with Stationert Hall.

93
95
95

RESEARCH CENTRE GROUP.
The Atlantis Research Centre,
The Hoerbiger Institute.
The Avalon Society.
Founder and Chairman: EGEETON SYKES. *Vice-Chairmen: G. A. TAWSB, H. S. BELLAMY,
L. EDWARDS, J. E. G. BYRNE.
Hon. Secretary. K. E. SYKES. Hon. Treasurer: J. BARNES.
All communications should be addressed to the Secretary at
9, Markham Square, S.W.3. Tel. Ken. 5381.
LECTURES AND EXCURSIONS.
On Wednesday, March 22nd, at 4.30 p.m., at the Caledo­
nian Hotel, Edinburgh:—Mr. EGERTON SYKES
will speak on ATLANTIS, A PROBLEM OP TO-DAY.
On Friday, March 31st, at 7.30 p.m., at the Caxton Hall,
Westminster:—Mr. F. R. WATTS will speak oh SOMEEXTRACTS' PROM THE TOPOGRAPHICAL SUR­VEY OF 3,000 B.C.
On Friday, April 21st, at 7.30 p.m., at the Caxton Hall,
Westminster:—Lt.-Col. FENWICK will speak on
ARCHAEOLOGY & DOWSING.
Mr. EGERTON SYKES has been invited to lecture in
Paris, on May 20th. If this can be arranged, further de­tails will be announced later.
Excursions to the prehistoric sites in Oxfordshire men­tioned by Mr. W atts in his lecture and to the Margate
Grotto, will be announced at the lecture on March 31st.

ATLANTIS THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
By Ignatius Donnelly, revised and edited by Egerton Sykes.
Published by H arper & Brs., New York, November, 1949: .$4..‘)0.
An English edition of this important work will be publishedin September, 1950, by Sidgwick and Jackson. As the supply
will be lim it^, copies should be reserved now from Markham
House, who will deliver on publication. Please do NOT send
any money until you are advised that your copy is awaiting
despatch. Price (tentative), 19/- post free.

Markham House Press Ltd., 31, King’s Road, London, S.W.3.

EUROPEAN LITERATURE ON ATLANTISSINCE 1914, REVIEWED.
By EGERTON SYKES.
Subsequent articles will deal with the Latin American comIjlex and thie E nglish Speaking World, respectively.

In Europe. The revival of interest in matters Atlantean,after the dull and uninteresting first years of this Century,
may be said to date from the end of World War I, when Ger­
many was undergoing the agonies of defeat and France thoseof victory, and the minds of many writers turned to the studyof that portion of our cultural past where finality had seemingly
been reached.
In Prance, although not the first in order of date, Pierre
Benoit really set the ball rolling with his Atlantide (1919), a
work of fiction which not only turned attention to the past,
but also satisfied France’s colonial aspirations by placing theLost Continent in French North Africa. This work, the only
one on Atlantis to have been filmed, has been the subject of
three inferior productions in Europe and the U.S.A.
Meanwhile, a timid beginning had already been made by
Paul Gatfarel, whose Atlantide, published in 1913, was followed
in 1914 by a series of papers presented over the next ten years
to the Paris Academy of Sciences by Emile Belot, who had
been working on a lunar theory similar to that of Hoerbiger.
Louis Germain had also presented a paper to the Academy in
1911, but did not amplify his conclusions until his Atlantide
appeared in 1924.
R. M. Gattefosse with Adam L’Homme
Tertiare (1919), La Verite Sur L’Atlantide (1923), Les Portes
de Bronze (1941) and Les Sages Ecritures (1945), and his
brother, Jean Gattefosse with L’Hypothese de la Derive desContinents (1925) and L’Hyperboree et les Migrations
Neolithiques (1940) were two of the three producers of the
Bibliographie de L’Atlantide in 1926, the third being C. Roux,
also the author of much Atlantean material.
In 1925, Paul Le Cour was appointed Secretary Generalof the newly-formed French Atlantis Society, which shortly
afterwards split into two groups, the break-away being headed
by R. Devigne, himself the author of Atlantide (1923). The
journal of the Society Atlantis of which Paul Le Cour is editor,
is still in existence, although in the interim it has tiirned some­what towards Celtic Mysticism.
He has written numerous
books and articles of which perhaps the most important is
A La Recherche D’Un Monde Perdu (1926).
In 1928, P'aul Coussin launched a bitter attack on the
Atlantis hypothesis in his book L’Atlantide de Platon, but, as
has so frequently happened, his evidence is more in favour
than against. Shortly before that, the French translation ofBessmertny from the German had been completed by A. Gidon,
who had also published Les Submersions Atlantiques in 1914,
and was later to translate Imbelloni from the Spanish. In
1924 the Abbe Moreux published a popular account of the81Lost Continent: L’Atlantide A-T-Elle Existe; in tJiat year
also M. Manzi’s Atlantide appeared, giving the latest occultideas on tlie subject.
Another predecessor of Benoit was 0. Reclus, whose
Atlantide Pays de L’Atlas had appeared in 1913, in which year
he had also contributed a preface to the Geographie Mythiqueof A. Paniagua, who was a follower of the same trend as theAmerican, Fessenden, and also the author of Atlantide in 1927.
One of the Belgian writers of this period was A. Rutot whose
Atlantide appeared in 1920.
F. Butavand Atlantide of 1925, placed the Lost Continent
in Tunisia. J. Carrere La Grand Soir, an Atlantean novel of1925 is chiefly valuable for the detailed appendix given in
the first edition.
Pierre Termier’s Atlantide of 1913 (Smithsonian Rep 1915)
and La Derive des Continents in 1924 (Smithsonian Rep 1925)
were, perhaps, the most important scientific works on the sub­ject during this half century, as it is on the basis of theirfindings that most scientific investigations have since been
pursued.
D. Duville’s Aethiopie Orientale ou Atlantie (1936) andPaul Ronciere’s La Conquete des Mers (1938) were both mile­stones in the advance of knowledge, as was Poisson’s Atlantide
Devant La Science of 1945. R. Godel’s Cite et Univers dePlaton, a brilliant film scenario based on Plato’s life and ideas,
was published in Cairo during 1944. Mention shoiTld also bemade of A. Glotz, the historian who expressed himself favour­
ably towards the Atlantean idea in liis Histoire Grecque in
1930.
In Germany, G. Lohmer with Kommende Weltkatastrophen
in 1921 started what was to become a small flood of books
spread over the next twenty years. Wieland’s Atlantis Edda
Und Bibel (1922), and K. G. Zschaetzsch’s Atlantis derUrheimat der Arier were both of considerable importance for
future developments.
The well known African explorer A. Frobenius, who spentnearly thirty years seeking for Atlantean traces in Africa,
mainly in the Ife Country, wrote some dozens of books, ofwhich the most important a re : Atlantische Gottelehre (1926),
Erlebte Erdteilen (1929 et seq) and Kulturgeschichte Afrikas(1933). The Frobenius Institute which he founded is still
functioning in Frankfurt am Main.
Among other seekers for traces in North Africa and Spain
were A. Schultern: Tartassos (1922); A. Hermann; Die
Erdekarte der Urbibel (1931); H. Jensen: Tartassos—Alantis(1925); Fr. Netolizky: Wiederentdeckung der Atlantis Platon’s(1924); and P. Borchardt: Platon’s Insel Atlantis (1931).
The first writing to be linked with the Hoerbiger Theory,
after the publication of Hoerbiger and Fauth’s Glazialkosmogonie in 1913 was H. Voigt’s Eis Ein Weltbaustoffe in 1918,
followed by E. Quisser’s Eline Einfuehning in die Glazialkos-

lliogonie and H. Fisher’s Wunder des Welteises, both of whichappeared in 1922; M. Valier’s Weltuntergang in 1923 and0. Ebelt’s Welteislehre in 1925-26. The German translation ofBessmertny’s Atlantis, which gave a chapter to the Hoerbiger
theory, had been published in 1922.
By 1925, the Hoerbiger Theory had its own journal
Schlussel Zum Weltgeschehen, edited by H. Fischer, which con­tinued under varying titles until 1940. H. W. Behm’sPlanetentod Und Lebenswende (1926), E. Georg’s Verschollene
Kulturen (1930) (later published in U.S.A. as the Adventureof Mankind), and B. Dacque’s Urwelt Sage Und Menscheit(1927), were a trio of serious studies which should on no ac­
count be overlooked. G. Hinzpeter, who was to be the last
editor up to 1940 of the Schlussel, by then known as the Neue
Welteislehre, wrote several works on the subject from 1928
onwards of which perhaps the best known is Mondniederbruchein Anlitz der Erde (1935). J. Emerson’s Die Welt Raetsel
Geloest in 1931 was followed by E. Kiss’ Welteislehre in 1933.
Kiss also wrote an important work on the Titicaca Calendar
Das Sonnentor Von Tihuanaku in 1937. With Hinzpeter, he is
one of the few from this group of writers to survive the war.
In Austria, in spite of changing political conditions, theJournal of the Vienna Society: Mitteilungen des Hoerbiger
Instituts, was published from 1933 until 1944 under the editor­
ship of Dr. Manfred Reiffenstein, who has also written exten­
sively on the subject. One of the Austrian writers was R. V.
Elmayer Vestenbrugg whose Welteislehre appeared in 1938.
(In 1948 a Bibliography of the Hoerbiger Theory was publishedin London, and copies can still be obtained).
Other German writers during this period were Hennig:
Von Raetselhaften Laendern (1925); Wencker W ildberg:
Atlantis (1925); Herman Wirth : Der Aufgang der Menschheit(1929) and Die Heilige Urschrift der Menschheit (1931), (bothworks detailing the results of years of investigations into thepetroglyphic representations of sun boats and their relation
to the Atlantean and the Hypoborean Cultures); S. Kadner:
Urheimat der Kulturmenschen (1931); J. K arst: Atlantis (aninteresting theory of duality of cultures) (1931); E. Lang:
Welt Mensch Und Gott (1935 or 1936).
Finally, mention should be made of A. Wegner, whose
continental drift theory was first enunciated in Die Entstehung
der Kontinente in 1920.
In Greece, Phocin Negris, the distinguished Greek author­
ity, wrote a series of papers between 1901 and 1922 when his
Atlantide was published, and his Glaciers et Atlantes appearedin 1924.
In Hungary, both N. Varkoyni’s Sziriat Oszlopai (1939)
and Hatvany’s Azsia Vila^ossaga should be consulted. The
first contains a full description of the Hoerbiger Theory.
In Italy, it was perhaps inevitable that Italian interest in
Atlantis should be focussed on the Tyrrhenian Sea and North

82

83

Africa, rather than on the distant Atlantic, and that, accord­
ingly, the majority of the contributions of members of the
Italian Atlantis Society of Bari should be oriented in thisdirection. Dr. Nicola Russo, Chairman of the Society andeditor of its journal Atlantide in Italia which appeared from1930 to 1932, wrote several papers on the subject, including
La Question Atlantidea E La Tirrenia and Atlantide, Tirrenia
Et Tirreni both about 1930, at which period G. d ’Amato wrote
II Processo Dell’Atlantide Di Platone; G. Perronne; L’Atlantide
and U. Rua: Piccolo Breviario Dell’Atlantide. Unfortunately,in the immediate pre-war years, the pressure of domestic politics
stopped any further speculative thought, and since then it
has not been possible to restart the Society for finanicalreasons.
In Scandanavia, Professor Rene Malaise has Atlantis en
Geologisk Verkzighet on the stocks and it should be publishedin Stockholm in the early Summer of 1950, while Professor
Hans Pettersson’s Atlantis Och Atlanten was published in 1945
and a German translation issued in Vienna in 1948. Professor
Hans Alfven has for some time been working out an astro­
nomical theory of moon capture, elaborated in The Cosmogonyof the Solar System (1942-1946).
In Denmark, the interest has been more metaphysical, and
M. Frandsen has written half-a-dozen works on Atlantis, in­cluding Atlantis a Reality or an Utopia, while Karl Stodel has
published The Divine Week-day.
In Slav Countries, although Dmitri Merezhkovsky wrote
Les Mysteres de L’Orient and the Secret of the West during
the first World War, it was not until 1927 and 1933 respectively
that translation made these important works of mysticalphilosophy available to Western Europe. Another Russian,A. Braghine, wrote L’Atlantide in 1934 and it was publishedin England as The Shadow of Atlantis in 1938. A Czech, A.
Bessmertny, wrote a critical survey of the Atlantis positionin German in 1923 and it was translated into French by A.
Gidon in 1925. In collaboration with Miss Helen Heney, theAustralian author, the writer of the present review had com­pleted an English translation of this work before World War
II, but it fell into enemy hands.
Since 1945, Professor A. Kamienski of the University of
Krakow has published two most important works on astronomi­
cal researches into Atlantis and the past. They are A Cyclic
Method of Finding Positions of Planets for Very Remote Times(1948), and Tables of the Sun for the Period from lOOOO B.C.
to 4000 B.C. (1947). Several of his papers have appeared in
Atlantean Research.
Professor N. Boneff of Sofia University has issued La
Theorie des Marees et L’Origine des Formations Lunaires etdes Regions Seismiques Terrestres (1948-9) and Une Applica­tion de la Theorie des Marees au Probleme de L’Atlantide(1948-9), both of which are important mathematical contribu­
tions.
84

ORICHALCUM.
By EGERTON SYKES.
This article, whioli w as written in December, 1949, is com­plemented by that of M. Tournier, which follows.

One of the mysteries which has perplexed generations ofresearch workers is the metal Orichalcum, which is mentioned
by Plato in his story of Atlantis, and also by one or two otherclassical authors. This strange metal, which the Atlanteans
regarded as a very useful building material, has been variously
reported as dark red or almost white in colour, but owing to thecomplete lack of any samples for testing purposes, its constitu­
tion has baffled investigators for some 2,500 years.
Paul Schliemann reported in his statement of 1912 that hehad found several medalions of a whitish metal which he pre­sumed to be Orichalcum, but these are not at the moment avail­able for investigation.
The late George Isaac Bryant, who spent many years in­vestigating the problem of Atlantis, suggested that Orichalcum
might perhaps be an alloy of platinum, copper and aluminium;
and recently, thanks to the courtesy of two of our members,
this matter was taken up with the leading authority in thiscountry on aluminium, and the largest firm of dealetrsi in plati­
num. Both these authorities were firm in their conviction that,since aluminium, which does not exist in a raw state, was only
discovered in 1809, its earlier discovery in Atlantean times
would have involved a degree of metalurgical skill far greaterthan that which we have any right to presume. They also ob­served that, owing to the difference in the melting points, analloy composed of platinum, copper and aluminium could not
be produced by heat treatment, but only asi a chemical product,
which would again put it outside the field of any earlier stan­
dard of knowledge.
A point, however, arises from this correspondence that plati­
num is present as an impurity in nickel, from which metal it
is usually obtained by a refining process. It is permissible,
therefore, to assume that if the Atlanteans had a source of supplyof nickel in which platinum was present as an impurity, thenatural admixture of the two metals might perhaps have beenused to produce medalions or other specimens of a whitish metal
haying great durability and resistance to exposure. Whether
this could have been used for building purposes or not is still
an,' open question.
On the subject of copper, the name Orichalcum has beentranslated by several authorities as Pinchbeck, Mountain Brass,or even just Brass; and it would appear that it might have been
p impure copper which, when heat-treated, showed differencesin durability and structure from ordinary copper, particularly
in resistance to the elements.
85

Those who visited the Paris Exhibition in 1937 will recollectthat one of the bridges over the Seine was coated with sheetsof what appeared to be burnished copper. On seeing this, one
felt that this must have been the appearance of the Atlantean
temples of which Plato speaks.

THE ORICHALCUM OF THE ATLANTEANS
By IVAN TOURNIER.
M. Tournier has been a distin gm ilied oontributor to the
French journal A t l a n t i s for m any years.
H e M s hindlyperm itted the translation of his reccnt article in D e s t i n s tohe puhlished in conjunction w ith th a t of Mr. Sylces, to farma picture of the Orichalcum situ ation as i t is today.

Following on recent announcements in the press on thetransmutation of mercury into gold in an American laboratory,
a writer has observed that it is purely by accident that this dis­covery agrees with the dreams of the alchemists, and that modern
science has nothing to learn from their grimoires. This is acasual judgment, since everyone at all familiar with traditional
knowledge believes, on the contrary, that this constitutes a proofof the deep knowledge possessed by the initiates of yore on theconstitution of matter and its possible modifications. _This isotope of mercury which is transformed into gold isevidently the mercury of the wise men, already observed as
being different to the usual quicksilver. But, by a technique now
unknown, the specialists of the past managed to prepare thiswithout atomic piles and all the costly apparatus of to-day.
This fact should incite us to take seriously other indications
handed down by tradition on the metals known to the ancients,
especially in so far as concerns the enigmatic Orichalcum oi? the
Atlanteans.
The ancients, as we know, had knowledge of seven metals
which they made to correspond with the seven astrologicalplanets : Gold—the S un; Silver—Luna; Iron—M ars; Copper—
Venus; Tin—Jupiter; Lead—Saturn; and Quicksilver—Mer­cury. Thanks to modern research, nature has shown herself
incomparably wealthier, both in planets (including asteroids),
and in metals (some seventy not counting artificial elements suchas neptunium, plutonium, americum, curium, etc., and a coupleof dozen metalloids).
But already in the times of antiquity an eighth metal seems
to have been known, the orikhafkos mentioned by Plato. Al­
though abundant in Atlantis, it has been lost since the submer­
sion of the island. In the Critias it is said : ‘‘Orichalcum wasdug out of the earth in many parts of the island and, with the
exception of gold, was esteemed the most precious of metals—
the entire circuit of the wall which encompassed the citadel,
flashed with the red light of orichalcum . . . In the interior of
the temple the roof was . . . adorned with orichalcum, all the otherparts of the walls and pillars and floor they lined with orichalcum
86. . . The injunctions of Poseidon .. . were inscribed on a column oforichalcum. ’'
What visions have been awakened by this mysteriotis andmagic metal! In Benoit’s ‘‘ATLANTIDE, ’’ Antinea gave a ringof orichalcum to Saint-Avit. It was Georges Pourest who wrote :This coffer of orichalcum sealed with sardonyx,
And lined with velvet, that Gengis Khan long ago,
Gave to my ancestor.
Many commentators have considered Orichalcum to be amyth or an esoteric symbol. Others have thought it to be brass,which is still known as archal in Greek. Plato, however, seems
to have spoken of a noble — as opposed to base — and specificmetal, and not of an alloy. Now-a-days it could be one of the
newly discovered precious metals such as platinum, nickel, irridium, ruthenium, cobalt, etc.
On the other hand, Pliny gives an interesting clue when heobserves that the ancients attributed to the Atlanteans the know­
ledge, since lost, of hardening copper or bronze. That this was
not a legend is shown by the discovery, or rediscovery, of abronze which can be hardened, in the form of an alloy of copperand breyllium—a light metal, also known as glucinium, dis­covered in 1798, and classified under No. 4 in Mendeleef’s atomic
table.
It is conceivable that the famous ‘‘mountain copper ’’ may wellhave been copper alloyed with beryllium. One is led to this suppo­
sition by the fact that in 1936, bistouris made of this metal datingback to the 14th Dynasty (17th Century b . c .) were found at
Assiut (Paris Soir, November 1 , 1936). As this metal cannot
be oxydised when cold, it may have been employed as a decora­tive covering, which would explain its high value.
If orichalcum alias beiyllium/copper, at last rediscovered,
has had an interesting past, the beryllium side of the combina­
tion is likely to have an even more remarkable future, for it isstated that it can easily be used to replace heavy water or graph­
ite in atomic piles. Since beryllium is easily extracted fromberyl (silicate of aluminium) of which there are large deposits-in
France, the interest which this news has aroused in that country
will readily be understood.
Let us hope that the exploitation of these deposits will only
be made in the interests of peace, and that orichalcum does notvanish for a second time in a new cataclysm provoked by celestial
anger . . . or human stupidity.
N O T E B Y T H E E D IT O R .— I f Orichalcum really is herj/lliuim,
which in i ts turn comes from aluminium silicate, then M r. O. I. B rya n t
m ay not have heen so fa r icrong after all.

87

COSMICDUSTTHE BIRTHGASCOSMIC
DUST

OF
THE MOON
By Professor

PRE-SUNMICHAEL KAMIENSKI.

1.
I t happened long, long ago; millennia of aeons, morethan two thousand million years ago. Our Pre-Sun, much bigger
than that of to-day, young and ardent, radiating with splendour
and white light, swam majestically in interstellar space, circl­
ing round—as it still continues to do—the invisible centre ofour (jalaxy, its Great Mystic LOGOS, and since those times,
it has circled round this Centrum more than ten times. Thus,
ten Galactic Years—if we may use this new term—have elapsed
since the life of our Pre-Sun underwent a great change.
Thus far, it had lived solitary, alone, sending its radiatingenergy to far-distant sister-suns. When lo! at the due timedecreed by Higher Powers, it met a certain cloud in its way.
This cloud was composed of various gases and cosmic dust, likethose which are strewn abundantly in our Galaxy, whereupon
the particles of this cloud began to undergo the gravitational
forces of the Pre-Sun. .They began to fall on to it, but when they
entered its electromagnetic field, which partly ionised and partly
repelled them by the pressure of light, a certain number ofparticles of the cloud were arrested. The result must have beenthat gases were accumulated at about the distance r from theSun, which depends on the atomic weight m of the gas and on
its ionization potential V.
13
r = 13,5 . 10 . m/V
Now, the gas particles with an atomic weight of about 7
were stopped at the distance of Jupiter, and those with a weightof about 13 at the distance of Saturn. In consequence of theirmutual collisions and motions along the lines of the electro­
magnetic forces of the Sun, the particles which had been stopped
88

accumulated in larger groups and gave birth to the great planetsof the solar system. Most of the material was accumulated at
the distance of Jupiter, and a somewhat smaller part at thatof Saturn. Out of the central part of this cloud, containing vari­
ous gases, the giant planets were formed in turn : Neptune, Uranous, Saturn, Jupiter (vide Fig. ). 'They formed the First Plane­tary Family. The fore part of this cloud, composed of cosmic dust,
which the Pre-Sun met first, was responsible for the formationof the oldest planets. Mars and Luna. They belong to theSecond Family. Finally, out of the last part of the cloud
through which the Pre-Sun passed, were formed the inner
planets. Earth, Venus and Mercury, also belonging to the Second
Family.
2.
The above is a short summary of the_theory_put forward
by the astronomer H. Alfven, of Stockholm, and published in
1942-1945 (1). It contains the results of his exhaustive re­searches on the origin of the planets, planetoids and satellites
of planets. In his researches, H. Alfven has used, and applied,
several formulas of celestial mechanics as well as the newest con­quests of physics and chemistry. Thus his theory enables us toexplain and even to foresee many details in the structure andmechanism of the solar system, which could not hitherto beproperly explained.
Let us note that the normal satellites of the planets wereformed with the remainder of the cloud-material in a manner
analogous to the formation of the planets under the influenceof the Pre-Sun. _ The cloud of gas and dust particles, approach­ing the planets in process of formation, were partially stopped
at certain distances and, accumulating, formed their satellites.

Thus, the above-mentioned First Family of planets, formed
cut of gas, has many common properties and thm differs fromthe Second Family, which was formed out of cosmic dust, andthus, the average density of the Second Family planets is over
3.0, whereas that of the First Family is far below 3.0.
3. As stated above, the oldest planets. Mars and Luna, wereformed at the very beginning. Luna circled round the Sun
probably between Venus and Mars. I t is genetically connectedwith the latter, having many properties in common. These,
however, may be discussed another time.
Now, at_a certain time, for some reasons not hitherto suffi­
ciently explained, Luna approached the Earth so close thatthe latter was able to capture it
forming a sort of double
planet. Henceforth, it became the satellite of the Barth, thoughretaining certain of its peculiar tra its : its orbit is never convex
in relation to the Sun, as it would have been if the Moon were acommon satellite of the Earth.
H.
Alfven considers that the numerous craters and otherformations of the Moon’s surface .may be a reminiscence of thetimes when it witnessed the birth of the Earth (3).
Curiously enough, the Hellenic myths, which are probably
echoes of the memory of pre-diluvian, pre-Hellenic civilisation
w'hich existed in the area of the present Mediterranean, tell usthat Uranos (Heaven) first rose out of Chaos, and of him wasborn Chronos, i.e., Saturn. This latter in turn gave birth toZeus-Jupiter. Thus, their sequence corresponds to that in thebirth of the First Family planets from gas, i.e , out of Chaos.
4. It is not easy to answer the question, how long ago the
Earth was able to capture Luna, if we take the stand-point ofmodern astronomical science. We cannot, however, dismiss
tacitly the many legends and myths of various peoples, nor thetestimonies of ancient writers, which relate that the appearanceof the Moon in our Heaven was connected with a terrible cata­strophe which once, but, speaking geologically, not so long ago,afflicted our globe. The writer is of the opinion that legends
and myths are not the outcome of phantasy; they are narrationsof real facts and events which, having been refracted in theprism of many centuries and generations, assume a colour orlight seemingly unrealistic.
It is the aim of the science of to-morrow to recreate thetrue face of that terrible disaster, probably the Universal Deluge,
to fix its chronology, and to explain the problem of Pre-Selenites,
i.e., of the peoples who lived before the appearance of the Moonin our sky. They are mentioned by Plutarch and other Greek
authors in their writings. One of the Arcadian kings was said
to have been named Proselenos (4). St. Augustine speaks ofthem in his “Be Civitate Dei.” Even now, there are still peoples
on the earth who have retained legends about the coming of
the Moon in the sky (5).
5. The readers of “ Atlantean Research” are familiar with90

the Cosmic Ice Theory, set forth so clearly by Mr. Egerton
Sykes in his article “ The Theory of Hoerbiger” (<5), and sup­ported by Dr. Rene Malaise C^). According to this theory,
Luna, being primarily an independent planet, once approachedthe Earth so close that the latter captured it. This happened
about 13,000 years ago, and this capture was the cause of the
Wurm glaciation, of the climatic breakdown, of great seismic
disturbances, and finally of the submersion of Poseidonia. It
was the second greatest disaster in the whole history of thehuman race, i.e., the Universal Deluge, the first having been
the disintegration of the Tertiary Satellite of the Earth (8).
Mr. H. S. Bellamy, in a series of books and articles, reveals
in a convincing manner the causes and the mechanism of these
terrible cataclysms. He develops before the mental eyes of hisreaders the horrible image of the Great Deluge, of which the
Biblical story (9) is but a feeble shadow.
On the other hand, according to the secret traditions ofHermeticism, the Moon is older than the Earth, and is not con­nected genetically with our globe.
These traditions relate
further, that the heliocentric orbit of Luna, after many trans­
formations, approached the Earth so close that it was finallycaptured. They even say that this marriage between the Earthand the Moon was contracted not so long ago, namely about
9500 B.C ., consequently at the time of the submersion of Posei­
donia . . .
6.
Thus we see that the mathematical theory of H. Alfven
entirely confirms the final conclusions both of H. Hoerbiger’s theory
and of the esoteric traditions, according to which our Moon was
captured by the Earth. Thus, it was not born of the Earth (C.
Darwin), but was its “ adopted child.” H. Alfven does not,however, define the actual time when this capture took place.
He is rather of the opinion that it happened a very, very longtime ago.
There is no doubt that our globe undergoes from time totime, at irregular intervals, great shocks and cataclysms. Theseare provoked either by certain orogenic processes, or by collisions
w'ith celestial vagrants. A great many meteoric craters bothsuperficial and even submarine, give evidence of this. In con­sequence of such collisions with fragments of celestial bodies,great geological changes niajL take place. One of the greatest
cataclysms took place about 12,000-13,000 years ago (lO). It
might have been provoked as a consequence of the fall upon the
Earth of a small asteroid or fragment of a comet with its heavy
nucleus. One of such minor collisions took place on June 30,
1908, in Siberia, when the Tungusian meteorite, as it is called,
destroyed forests over a great area, forming dozens of funnelshaped depressions in the ground and creating the great South­
ern Marsh with a surface of about five square miles. It wasprobably related to the Pons-Winnecke comet.
Further scientific research on these lines will undoubtedly
91

yield very important conclusions as to the actual cause and timeof the submersion of Poseidonia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

H annes Alfven. On the Cosmogony of the Solar System, P .I., II, II I,
1942-1946.
Ibidem, P. II, 28.
Ibidem, P. II, 28.
E. Sykes, Atlaiiteaii Research, Vol. 2, No. 5, 68.
Ibidem, 68.
Ibidem, 65-TO.
Rene M alaise, A tlantean Research, Novem ber/Deeem bcr, 1948. The
Great Cataclism of Prehistory.
B. Sykes, A tlantean Research, Vol. 2, No. 5, 67.
H . S. Bellam y, The A tlantis Myth.
„B u ilt Before the Flood.
H . S. Bellam y, The A tlantis Mvth.

TIAHUNACAO- -THE NEXT STAGE.
By EDMUND KISS.
Dr. Edmund K iss whose book D es Sonnervtor Von Tiahnnacao(The sun-gate of Tiahunacao, 19.37) completed an importantstage in the investigations into the m ystery of the great calen­
dar stone, and who is also the author of several importantworks on A tlantis and the Hoerbiger Theory, has sent us thisnote outlining the field work which, in his opinion, should beundertaken as soon as possible in order to round off the picture.
W e are very glad that the rumours as to his death in WorldW ar I I have proved unfounded.

The following tasksi in the exploration of the Andean high­lands remain to be completed :—1.
The survey and measuremenli of the so-called upper
strand-line, which lies approximately 200m. above the Tiahuanaco strand-line, that is, above the line which descends south­
wards from the level of the mole in the harbour. Contrary tothat of Tiahuanaco, this line does not consist of chalk depositedby water, or of tide marks, or of delta courses of ancient rivers,
but of large masses of shells, chiefly mussels.
Stretches of this strand-line have disappeared in someplaces, but in others they are marked by the piled-up deposits
of masses of shells. The Indians know these locations, since theyburn the shells on the spot to make building-limel The upper
strand-line is therefore not as continuous as the lower one, al­though large gaps occur also in the latter.
In the South—Atakama, Ascotan—the upper mussel-shellline seems to me to terminate in the air, and not to be continuous,
all the way round, as should be the case with an inland lake.
If this line is fixed thus, it will prove that the Gulf of Tiahuan­aco, the bottom of which is now the Meseta, was at one timeconnected with the ocean. The lower line was surveyed under
the direction of the late A. Posnansky, but the upper line has
only been briefly visited. These surveys, therefore, are as yet
92

Inadequate to prove’ the existence of an ancient gulf which wa,sjoined with the ocean, because the lower chalk strand-line dis­appears some 10 km. to the south of Lake Poopo in the deposits
of sand, clay and salt, which have filled the southern basin of
the Meseta. The work remaining to be done requires a great
deal of time and expense. In my survey, I used three methods,
the same as Alexander von Humbold. Errors are possible in
the application of all three, but they can be kept to a minimum.
2.
The buildings still lying at the bottom of the southern
pairt of Lake Titicaca ought to be explored as I was able to carryout only a partial examination. Posnansky considered that they
dated from the pre-ice age. I believe them to be the work of
the same masons who fashioned the! Calendar Gate.
As a starting point, I recommend the Island of Simillake,
which lies in the Peruvian parti of the delta lagoon of the Desaguadero. The main walls of the square structure, measuring
50 x 50 m., which are still preserved, are faced inside and out­side with polished Andesite slabs, similar to the buildings in
Tiahuanaco, namely Puma Punku. The core of the main walls
consists of chalk-cement with large round pebbles. There aremany such buildings, but most of them lie under water. The
present lower surface level of the great lake is much more favour­
able for exploration than it was in my time.

EARTH LODGE AND ETERNAL HOUSE.
By C. A. BURLAND.
Mr. Bentham’s reference to the Omaha Earth Lodge raises
many fascinating problems for the anthropologist. Why earthlodges 1 Who used them, and where ? Did they develop into othertypes of house? Was the tomb house—the eternal home—any
development of the earth house of the living?
First let us define the term earth-lodge. As understoodby the Omaha: and many other Indian peoples a century ago it
was an excavated pit in which poles were erected to support
a tent-like roof of timbers and brushwood; this was covered by
the earth from the excavation except for the central hole used asa smoke vent. Often the entrance was through a crooked passage
which acted as a wind break. Now this kind of construction may
be round or square, but although the poles are often arranged
like the beams of Stonehenge, the essential difference is in thepresence of the excavation which forms the walls of the earthlodge.
If we prepare a map of the distribution of the( earth-lodges
we shall find some very interesting evidence to explain thereason. Some of the pits of the late palaeolithic period in Mora,via were probably earth houses, and it is certain that late palaeo­
lithic Siberians used earth houses in which the beams were madeof mammoth and rhino bones. In mesolithic Britain a few earth-lodges were constructed. On the other side of the hemispherethe late palaeolithic (but modern) Eskimos have the earth-lodge
in many forms. The Greenland style with stone and whale’sbones to support the roof has a considerable local antiquity, andthe central Eskimo version is the well-known snow-house, while
in Alaska a highly developed timber form of house goes backa few thousand years, and in at least one case was used as acommunal grave. Among the American Indians the earth-Iodge
was the prototype of the secret underground meeting rooms of
the religious societies of New Mexico and Arizona, and may
even have been the origin of the meeting place of Mexican
warriors excavated at Malinalco. In every-day life, however,it had become a century ago restricted to the Mississippi-Missouri area.
It is this modern American distribution which gives theclue—the earth-lodge covers the area of cold winters with heavy
snow, the area without heavy forest, and the area where thepeople had begun to develop agriculture so that instead of fol­lowing the animals they had at least a season when they could
live in villages in one spot. The earth-lodge is therefore an ans­
wer to natural and social conditions. Natural—it is the warmest
kind of dwelling devised before air-conditioning, and even as thesnow igloo, it reduces its inhabitants to almost complete indoor
nudity. lK)ok on the m ap: the ancient examples are all along
the fringe of hunting country south of the glaciers and northof the forest of their time, even in the Americas the distributionof these dwellings follows the route of the prairies which was
an ice-free corridor during the last glaciation. Whether theidea was independently invented or whether it ditfused from one
tribe to another is not certain, but its markedly! northern distri­bution suggests that diffusion was an easy matter, especially as
nearly forty thousand years elapse between the earliest known
examples and. the latest. The social conditions associated withthe earth-lodge are those of the people who need protection fromweather, but are able to settle together in some numbers. Thereis a good deal of work involved, and the community has to beso well supplied with food resources that they can spare time
for such activities. That it is why it is unlikely that the idea
originated in human communities of the tirst three glaciationsof the Pleistocene period, it was only the intensive economy oflate paleolithic cultures that could provide the social conditions
necessary.
Now the Eternal House has a very different idea behind it—
the natural idea that the other world is very like this one. The
attempt is to give the departed a home with symbolic representa­
tions of the every-day world to help him in the new life. You
find this idea in a simple form in all burials where goods aredeposited with the dead. Prom China to Peru we have thisidea, and sometimes a grave made like a little house of the cul­
ture concerned; but a special group of graves has some closer
94

apparent connection with the earth-lodge. These are the passage
graves and chamber tombs of the megalithic cultures. They
have a chamber of great uprights with lintels across, and the-wholeis covered by a mound of earth. But they are limited in range,
not even appearing over the whole megalithic area. If thedolmen be a simplified and degenerate form of this tomb we
could give it a line of progress across Indonesia, India, andEurope, a line of warm climate lands, and even in the European
field far later than the glacial period. But the most complete
forms of these tombs have a surprisingly limited range—theMediterranean and Western Europe. In Africa, if the Egyp­tian tombs can be equated with the passage grave, the idea spread
only along the northern coast. In fact the whole range of pas­sage and chamber tombs of megalithic type is associated withsea and river routes. It is connected with regions in which metal
was rich : Ireland, Spain, South Sweden. Tin, Copper, Gold,and Amber seem to have been the lure which tempted the bear­ers of megalithic ideas. I decidedly say ‘‘ideas, ’’ for the region
shows many kinds of pottery, many kinds of metal work. The
daily life of the people was by no means uniform, so we haveno evidence of conquest by the ship-borne traders. Just the ideaof an eternal house made of stones and piled high with earth,
not for the honour of every person but for the nobles or the chief.
The dates are not so definite as one might hope, the cult seems
to have flourished at its richest about the period when Knossos
had fallen and golden Mykenae had not yet sent its sons to dieat Troy.
The earth-lodge builders had long passed on their hunting
way across the plains of Siberia before the megalithic people had
set about their work of civilisation by trade. Whether the first
spread was brought from Egypt with its perfected stone masonrj^
and poor ships, or whether it first spread on the dolphin shipsof Knossos along with a belief in sacred caves and spiral orna­
ments is a matter of guesswork so far. Egyptian beads reached
Yorksiiire and Dorset. Irish gold spread towards Europe, Baltic
amber came south.
With the aid of culture distribution maps we have solved
our first set of problems. The earth-lodge was a way of pro­tecting men from a cold climate, and of providing a centre forvillagers just ceasing from the nomadic life. The megalithic
chamber tombs were part of a religious cult carried by traders
f.rom the Mediterranean. It h p a strikingly Atlantic distribu­
tion, but probably the Atlantic Ridge was already some five
thousand years below the waters. There is just one strange little
parallel—America. The megalithic chamber tomb may be paral-^leled m the great monuments of San Augustin in Columbia.
Illere is a matter to ponder over—was there some transatlantie drift voyager? It smps were good enough to sail fromSpam to Ireland they may well have been dragged away in thegrip of the AVesterlies, Alternatively the chamber tomb and the95hiegalithic culture may be natural developments wlien settled
agricultural people develop the idea of a “ divine king. ’’
At a later date we shall be able to use maps of culture distri­bution to show similar puzzling American parallels in the matterof the ziggurat (temple on top of terraced mound representing
the layers of the heavens), and the shaft tomb with chambers at
the bottom. The author would be glad to have notes from any
reader giving further information of the occurrence of suchmonuments.

THANET ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
In a note from Mr. Harper Cory we are informed that anarchaeologist of 30 years standing, who has worked both with
Flinders Petrie in Egypt and Leonard Woolley at Ur, recently
visited the Margate Grotto. He gave a considered opinion thatthe place is distinctly ancient, and must be older than the Phoeni­
cian -sdsits to these shores. He admitted the resemblances ofthe symbolism to Egyptian ideas, but needed time for further
consideration before acknowledging any Cretan influence. Con­
cerning the winged flints found at the Grotto, he remarked thatthey were doves—votive oiferings, of whicb he had found manyin the Mediterranean area, where they are buried in a circle
round each tomb. His final opinions are awaited with great in­terest. The investigators of the Grotto are open to conviction,
but so far—apart from some severe personal attacks—no evi­
dence has been forthcoming to refute their hypothesis of indica­
tions of Cretan influence.
Meanwhile, the activities of the Thanet Archaeological So­
ciety are not concerned only with solving the problem of theorigin of the Margate Grotto. A number of very ancient burial
places await further inestvigation, as well as Celtic and Romansites and traces of Anglo-Saxon and later cultures. Each ofthese phases has its devotees, and it is hoped that their combined
researches will produce an adequate picture of early life inThanet.
Dear Editor—With reference to Leslie Young’s “ Platonic
Miscelleny,” I would observe that Plato was also aware of thebasis of the periodical destructions, as he says in the Critias:“ Often and in many ways has mankind suffered destruction
and will again be destroyed, mainly through fire and water. . . .
This sounds like a myth, but the true kernel of it is the alteredcourses of the bodies moving around the earth.”This statement on fhe part of the Egyptian priest is self
explanatory, as we are aware of the alteration in the path ofthe moon in the event of a cataclysm. The Egyptians musthave had a factual knowledge of this in their archives. I feelthat this observation in Critias has not yet received the esti­
mation which it merits.
EDMUND KISS.
(N.T>.— The quotation from Critias is translated from the German textof Otto Aijelt in the Philos Library, Leipzig, 1922).

96

BETTY ROSS
Diego Rivera: An Artistes Testament“ I put Diego Rivera in the front rank of modern art,
because he has revived the national spirit of the Mexican art
tradition. Among the artists of his own country he holds
first place. Apart from that he is a good painter, not only
ou courwnt of the artistic revolution of our epoch, but one
who has taken a definite part in the revolution.
“ From the first, Diego always appeared old. Even as ayoung man, he carried about with him the sadness of his
race. Perhaps Mexicans are like that because they are
mixed — not pure Spaniards, nor pure Indians. His people
have suffered much, under many masters. The World hears
the song of their soul in the art of Diego, Rivera. ’’—PABLOPICASSO, in an interview with the author at Golfe Juan,
Antibes, in the Preface.
The author, Miss Betty Ross, is a journalist with the
knack of making her subjects live.
Her report of her
friendship with Diego Rivera is illustrated with forty-sevenplates, reproductions of his paintings, water-colours, draw­
ings, and a frontispiece of herself, painted whilst posing forthe artist when the book was being written.
This magnificently produced volume is written in a mostengaging style iand with a frankness that befits the artist.
Is Mexican art broody or sensualistic, expressive of a true
feeling for form or colour, wildly modernist or traditional?
Diego Rivera’s art, until now hardly known outside his own
country, may well answer these and other questions. Betty
Ross has written a volume which will take pride of placeon the shelvesi of lovers of art and great journalism.
WitK 47 full-page plates — mmiy in cokmr
Cr. ito, full cloth, approx. 200 pages, probably 22s. post free.
Ready in the Spring <// 1950.
Publishers: Pen in Hand, L td
Obtainable through .Markham House Press, Ltd.,31, KING’S ROAD, LONDON, S.W.3.
CORRECTION
M y attention has been drawn to two errors of fact in “The Theory of
Hoerbiger,” published in the last issue. H . S. B ellam y points out that
Hoerbiger had no daughters, and that, in consequence F auth w as not his
son-in-law.
M. Kamienski observes that the statem ent that “The bulk of . . .
com ets is vast while their w eight is . . . nil” is incorrect, as their nuclei
m ay consist of one or many heavy lumps several m iles in diameter. Many
thanks to both these gentlemen for their kindness in pointing out these
inaccuracies.
T H E E D IT O R .