The Entrancement of Seven Cities…

Spanish conquistadors in the New World yearned to find a route to the seven Cities of Gold, the Cibola, the location of El Dorado. Fifteenth-century scribes had placed these seven wondrous cities on the mythical island of Antillia – said to exist in the great ocean due west of Portugal. As that century drew to a close and the explorers finally managed to travel west,  no Antillia was found, much less its wonderful cities. They were then re-located to south America, deep in the jungles; as an enticement to the conquistadors to explore further.

The concept of seven fabulous or sacred cities has been around for a long time-

India’s Pilgrimage sites are also known as tirathas(fords), crossings between the worldly and divine spheres. A tiratha may be a river such as, Ganges, or a mountain peak, such as mount Kailash – the mysthical Himalayan retreat of Lord Shiva. Several tirathas are places where the Gods are belived to descended to earth, and which may then act as gateways for thr pilgrim to divine realms. There are seven sacred cities in Hindu India, which are the principal pilgrimage centers : Varanasi and Hardwar on the river Ganges, Ayodhya, the birthplace of lord Rama; Mathura, Lord krishna’s Birthplace; Dwarka, where the adult Krishna ruled as a king and where the krishna Vasudeva was born; Kanchipuram, the great Shaivite temple city of Tamil Nadu; and Ujjan, site every twelve years of Kumbha Mela.

Rameshwaram(in the south), as the name suggests is an abode of  Lord Rama. Rameshwaram is an island between mainland India and Sri Lanka, which Rama is said to have crossed on his journey to rescue his wife Sita from Ravana.

Lost Atlantis of India ?

Alleged ruins of an ancient civilization under the Gulf of Khambhat, India

The alleged discovery of vast underwater ruins in the Gulf of Khambhat in the north-west of India in 2000 has prompted speculation about an “Indian Atlantis”. Leaving aside the question of whether these self-contained civilizations really existed -implicitly on islands or isolated areas, it’s clear that many people *want* to believe that they existed.

Graham Hancock’s book Underworld sets out a  basic thesis, unaccepted of course by mainstream scholars. There once was “a lost civilization destroyed in the cataclysmic global floods that brought the last Ice Age to an end,” and the survivors passed on their knowledge to the newer ancient civilizations with which we are more familiar. The search for an “Indian Atlantis” is the basis for this book, which is structured around Hancock’s exploration of underwater sites near India, Japan, Taiwan and China, and in the Arabian and Mediterranean Seas.

Having appeared to have lost these wonderful mythical islands in India – populations may have started turning west and north – and in time migrating in those directions;  to find similarly blessed isles on the other side of the world – off the western coast of Europe.

Triglav trinity

From Wikipedia -

One of many representations of a Triglav trinity

Triglav’ (lit. ‘three headed’) also sometimes called ”troglav” is a god or complex of gods in Slavic mythology, similar in nature to the Trinity in Christianity or Trimurti in Hinduism. Often, he is considered to be the same deity as Troyan.
Triglav is a unity of three gods. The exact members of the triad vary by place and time. An early variation included Svarog, Perun, and Dajbog. Later, Dajbog was replaced by Svetovid or Veles. Triglav is usually described as a fusion of these gods. More rarely he is said to be their son. It may also be a unity of lesser gods (Lesser Triglav).
In one legend, Triglav is veiled completely, so holy that he cannot see the evil deeds of men. He rarely appears around mortals.
Triglav is depicted as a three-headed man sometimes with bands of (gold) blindfolds over his eyes, or a man with three goat heads. Several temples dedicated to Triglav existed near Szczecin, Poland. During the period of Christianization, these temples and statues of Triglav were completely destroyed.

The call of Antillia..

The mythical Island of Antillia, lying directly due west of Portugal in this map from 1455.

The desire to reach fabulous, magical, mythical islands was one of the prime motivations behind many of the westward migrations of populations from central Asia across Europe.  There appears to have been a sense that true enlightenment, true consciousness, true LIGHT could only be experienced at these extremities of the known world – and that the continental centers were just a cesspit of territory wars, rivalries and spiritual stagnation.

In truth, there were islands of sorts to be found in the middle of the continents – harsh inaccessible places that could remain relatively immune from outside influences and harassment. The high Alps of Switzerland were one such internal island – difficult to settle, but once occupied and tamed, easy to defend. Protected behind the massive stone walls of the Alps, an ancient consciousness has flourished to this day, often barely observed.

But the supposed western islands still beckoned.  Britain and Ireland  – both being large enough to support large scale civilizations – were invaded and occupied many times over the millennia, the invaders being scrupulously documented in the annals of the times. In due course the islands that we now know as the Canaries, the Azores, the Faroes and many others were discovered, but found wanting.

One of the most enigmatic mythical islands was Antillia -  a large island with a bountiful civilization centered on seven wondrous cities  – said to lie to the west of Spain and Portugal. Columbus had expected to make Antillia his half-way stop on this travels to China and Japan. As the age of exploration progressed; Jamaica, Trinidad, Puerto Rico and Cuba were all known as Antillia at one point or another. No seven wondrous cities of gold were ever found; and their supposed existence was pushed further west and south into the Amazonian jungles or high Andes of the newly discovered south American continent.

Antillia itself was believed to have its own mythical island lying to its west – known variously as Royllo, Roillo or Ymana.

Echoes of this mythological island still live on – the modern islands of the West Indies, stretching from Cuba in a long south-easterly arc to Trinidad are to this day known as the Greater and Lesser Antilles.

The even more enigmatic island of Royllo, lying to the west of Antillia

Snake-Witch stone of Gotland

The Snake-Witch stone of Gotland, Sweden

One of the most enigmatic of the many 1st-millennium rune-stones scattered across Scandinavia is the so-called  Snake-Witch stone  of Gotland; a large island off the eastern coast of Sweden. It is one of the westernmost depictions of a snake goddess; or a priestess involved in a ritual involving snakes.

It has drawn obvious comparisons with the Snake Goddesses of Crete – easily explained by Varangian mercenaries and traders bringing hints of Greek mythology back with them on their return  travels northwards -  but which in turn evokes hints of the snake charmers of India.

The Snake Goddess of Crete, dated to about 1600BC

It also very obviously evokes and reinforces the image of the Cerunnos figure depicted on the Gundestrup cauldron; which as has been previously documented here, is almost a carbon copy of a figure known from the ancient Indus Valley civilization.

Indian Vimanas and Irish flying ships

Vimanas or "flying chariots" of Vedic lore

Many Sanskrit epics, which were written in India more than two millenia ago, contain references to mythical flying machines called Vimanas, often equating them to floating palaces with seven levels. Pointing to similarities between descriptions of Vimanas and reports by people who claim to have seen UFOs, those subscribing to the theory of “ancient aliens”  have suggested that astronauts from other planets visited India during ancient times.

Conventional scholars of Vedic history have explained away the seemingly startling notion as nothing more strange than the heavenly ‘chariots’ used by Norse and Greek Gods.

However, strikingly similar tales are contained in the ancient Irish Leabhair Gebala - or the Book of Invasions. It tells of a race  known as Tuatha dé Danann,  – the people of the Goddess Danu – arriving above Ireland in “flying ships”.  The dominant tribe of Ireland at the time -the Fomorians – are said to have created an “energy field” of some sort to keep the invaders out.  The flying ships had to encircle Ireland nine times before they eventually found a way through the energy field and were able land at Sliabh an Iarann – “the Iron Mountain” – in County Leitrim.

Tuatha de Danann of Irish Folklore, as imagined by Jim Fitzpatrick. Note the flying ships in the background.

Once they had managed to land in Ireland, its is said that the  Tuatha de Danaan  used iron from the mountain to forge superior weapons and armour; and then burned the flying ships to make the point to the Formorians that they intended to stay. In the ensuing battles the Tuatha were victorious; and ruled Ireland for many generations.

Even more intriguing, is the fact that Danu was both an Irish and a Hindu goddess. In Vedic literature, there is mention of a tribe of asuras called Danavus who were known as “the sons of Danu”.

The echoes of Kumari Kandam

Medieval Tamil folklore refers to the existence of a large sunken landmass it calls Kumari Kandam -a vast land extending southwards from southern India and Sri Lanka and extending westwards and eastwards across the Indian Ocean. Tamil epics from the fifth century BCE relate how this land was taken by “a cruel sea”, and the inhabitants moved north in search of new lands to conquer.

In the western ocean, the Maldives and Laccadive islands are perhaps the echoes of this landmass; in the eastern ocean perhaps the Andaman & Nicobar islands.  The landmass was depicted as stretching as far south as present-day Diego Garcia island in the Chagos Archipelago.

These isolated islands- along with Sri Lanka itself – may have exercised the imagination of the ancient world, in that they somehow represented a small fragment of the lost wisdom and wonder of the fabled Kumari Kandam – that their survival of that inundation implied that they may be  “fortunate isles”.

How to prevent the Earth from quaking ?

In Voltaire’s Candide, he makes reference to a ceremony – which he describes as an auto-da-fé  – being held by the people of Lisbon after the calamitous earthquake which occurred there in 1755. The people of Lisbon believed that this “great ceremony was an infalliable means of preventing the earth from quaking.“

Otherworlds and Western Isles

Perhaps the search for ‘blessed isles’  – lands of peace, longevity and prosperity – was a major impetus for populations migrating west, east and south. In their migrations south through the Indian subcontinent, travelers  may have been in search of an island that the Greeks  later called “Taprobane”; – a mystical land of unknown size we now know as Sri Lanka. Once there, they could go no further.

 

An ancient map of Sri Lanka refers to it as "Taprobane"

 

Similarly in another direction, populations kept moving  kept moving west until they hit Ireland, then there was nowhere further west to go, just the vast ocean.  Once the lands-ends had been reached, they postulated the existence of fabulous lands even further west -  The Fortunate Isles of Greek mythology, Hy-Brazil and Tir na nOg of Irish mythology, Avalon of Arthurian Legend.

Centuries later, many unfortunately did move to Isles further west, but these Isles were certainly not blessed.  The sugar plantations established in the West Indies in the 17th  century were a hell on earth; a purgatory where the rebellious peasants of Ireland and Scotland  were transported for the most minor of transgressions. The names of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad – along with multiple lesser isles  – instilled nothing but horror. Work in the harsh humid climate was hard, justice was arbitrary and life expectancy was short.

The transported Irish and Scots were  thrown together with Yoruba slaves from West Africa; and although it was not recognized at the time, a slow intermingling of their cultures occurred-  as well as their bloodlines. The modern visitor to the Caribbean islands is often struck by the preponderance of Irish surnames – not to mention curious figures of speech that echo back to the old countries – among the black populations.

 

St Patrick's Day Celebrations on Montserrat, in the Lesser Antilles

 

The Earth influencing the course of history…

One of the most pivotal events influencing the turn of history in the later Enlightenment was the Great Lisbon earthquake of 1755, a cataclysm which had far-reaching consequences beyond the immediate loss of life for tens of thousands in Portugal and Spain and the destruction of the city.

Lisbon was known at the time to be one of the seats of learning of the Alchemists, so not beyond the bounds of supposition to presume that a bright spark in their number stumbled upon something he shouldn’t, and decided to put it to the test. If so, his timing couldn’t have been better.

The earthquake had wide-ranging effects on the lives of the populace and intelligentsia. The earthquake had struck on an important church holiday and had destroyed almost every important church in the city, causing anxiety and confusion amongst the citizens of a staunch and devout Roman Catholic city and country, which had been a major patron of the Church. Theologians and philosophers would focus and speculate on the religious cause and message, seeing the earthquake as a manifestation of the anger of God, and perhaps on the powerlessness of the priests, bishops and the Pope to intervene in celestial matters.

Its fallout strongly influenced the intelligentsia of the European Age of Enlightenment. Voltaire’s Candide - written shortly after the earthquake, and referenced in the work -  attacks the notion that the  world is closely supervised by a benevolent deity; and echoes back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose deities were fickle and subject to mood swings, often with dire consequences for the populace.

The Lisbon disaster provided a salutary counterexample of the omnipresent benevolent father-like deity; at a time when the church was poorly positioned to refute the argument itself.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was also influenced by the devastation following the earthquake, whose severity he believed was due to too many people living within the close quarters of the city. Rousseau used the earthquake as an argument against cities as part of his desire for a more naturalistic way of life.

The concept of the sublime, though it existed before 1755, was developed in philosophy and elevated to greater importance by Immanuel Kant, in part as a result of his attempts to comprehend the enormity of the Lisbon quake and tsunami. Kant published three separate texts on the Lisbon earthquake. The young Kant, fascinated with the earthquake, collected all the information available to him in news pamphlets, and used it to formulate a theory of the causes of earthquakes. Kant’s theory, which involved the shifting of huge subterranean caverns filled with hot gases, was (though ultimately shown to be false) one of the first systematic modern attempts to explain earthquakes by positing natural, rather than supernatural, causes. (- Wikipedia)

On a more practical nature, surveys demanded the Portugese Prime Minister – the Marquis de Pombal -  in the aftermath of the earthquake, along with Kant’s efforts – form the basis of modern seismology; and the rebuilt Pombaline quarter  or ‘Pombaline Baixa’ of Lisbon bears testament to the earliest efforts at urban construction specifically architected to be earthquake-resistant.