<![CDATA[ LIBER LI
THE LOST CONTINENT
by Aleister Crowley
FORWARD
"In particular there is a sort of novel, "The Lost Continent", purporting
to give an account of the civilization of Atlantis. I sometimes feel that
this lacks artistic unity. At times it is a fantastic rhapsody describing
my ideals of Utopian society; but some passages are a satire on the
conditions of our existing civilization, while others convey hints of
certain profound magical secrets, or anticipations of discoveries in
science."
--- Crowley, writing of the Summer of 1913 e.v. from Confessions, p. 730.
PREFACE
Last year I was chosen to succeed the venerable K-Z --- who had it in his
mind to die, that is, to join Them in Venus, as one of the Seven Heirs of
Atlantis, and I have been appointed to declare, so far as may found
possible, the truth about that mysterious lost land. Of course, no more
than one seventh of the wisdom is ever confided to one of the Seven, and
the Seven meet in council but once in every thirty-three years. But its
preservation is guaranteed by the interlocked systems of "dreaming true"
and of "preparation of the antinomy." The former almost explains itself;
the latter is almost inconceivable to normal man. Its essence is to train
a man to be anything by training him to be its opposite. At the end of
anything, think they, it turns out to be its opposite, and that opposite
is thus mastered without having been soiled by the labours of the
student, and without the false impressions of early learning being left
upon the mind.
I myself, for example, had unknowingly been trained to record these
observations by the life of a butterfly. All my impressions came clear on
the soft wax of my brain; I had never worried because the scratch on the
wax in no way resembled the sound it represented. In other words, I
observed perfectly because I never knew that I was observing. So, if you
pay sufficient attention to your heart, you will make it palpitate.
I accordingly proceed to a description of the country.
"Aleister Crowley"
I
OF THE PLAINS BENEATH ATLAS, AND ITS SERVILE RACE.
Atlas is the true name of this archipelago --- continent is an altogether
false term, for every "house" or mountain peak was cut from its fellows
by natural, though often very narrow waterways. The African Atlas is a
mere offshoot of the range. It was the true Atlas that supported the
ancient world by its moral and magical strength, and hence the name of
the fabled globe-bearer. The root is the Lemurian "Tla" or "Tlas", black,
for reasons which will appear in due course. "A" is the feminine prefix,
derived from the shape of the mouth when uttering the sound. "Black
woman" is therefore as near a translation as one can give in English; the
Latin has a closer equivalent.
The mountains are cut off, not only from each other by the channels of
the sea, but from the plains at their feet by cliffs naturally or
artificially smoothed and undercut for at least thirty feet on every side
in order to make access impossible.
These plains had been made flat by generations of labour. Vines and
fruit-trees growing only on the upper slopes, they were devoted
principally to corn, and to grass pastures for the amphibian herds of
Atlas. This corn was of a kind now unknown, flourishing in sea-water, and
the periodical flood-tides served the same purpose as the Nile in Egypt.
Enormous floating stages of spongy rock --- no trees of any kind grew
anywhere on the plains so wood was unknown --- supported the villages.
These were inhabited by a type of man similar to the modern Caucasian
race. They were not permitted to use any of the food of their masters,
neither the corn, nor the amphibians, nor the vast supplies of shellfish,
but were fed by what they called "bread from heaven," which indeed came
down from the mountains, being the whole of their refuse of every kind.
The whole population was put to perpetual hard labour. The young and
active tended the amphibians, grew the corn, collected the shell-fish,
gathered the "bread from heaven" for their elders, and were compelled to
reproduce their kind. At twenty they were considered strong enough for
the factory, where they worked in gangs on a machine combining the
features of our pump and treadmill for sixteen hours of the twentyfour.
This machine supplied Atlas with its "ZRO"[2] or "power," of which I
shall speak presently. Any worker showing even temporary weakness was
transferred to the phosphorus works, where he was sure to die within a
few months. Phosphorus was a prime necessity of Atlas; however, it was
not used in its red or yellow forms, but in a third allotrope, a
blue-black or rather violet-black substance, only known in powder finer
than precipitated gold, harder than diamond, eleven times heavier than
yellow phosphorus, quite incombustible, and so shockingly poisonous that,
in spite of every precaution, an ounce of it cost the lives (on an
average) of some two hundred and fifty men. Of its properties I shall
speak later.
The people were left in utmost slavery and ignorance by the wise counsel
of the first of the philosophers of Atlas, who had written: "An empty
brain is a threat to Society." He had consequently instituted a system of
mental culture, comprising two parts:
[#1] There were four (some say five) distinct races, each
having several sub-races. But the main characteristics were the
same. some alleged the Portuguese and the English to be
survivals of this or kindred stock.
[#2] Or Zra'd. The ZR is drawled slowly; the the lips are
suddenly curled back in a sneering snarl, and the vowel sharply
and forcibly uttered. It is disputed whether this word is
connected with the Sanscrit SRI, holy.
*************
1. As a basis, a mass of useless disconnected facts.
2. A superstructure of lies.
Part 1 was compulsory; the people then took Part 2 without protest.[3]
The language of the plains was simple but profuse. They had few nouns and
fewer verbs. "To work again" (there was no word for "to work" simply),
"to eat again," "to break the law" (no word for "to break the law
again"), "to come from without," "to find light" ("i.e. "to go to the
phosphorus factory) were almost the only verbs used by adults. The young
men and women had a verb-language yet simpler, and of degraded
coarseness. All had, however, an extraordinary wealth of adjectives, most
of them meaningless, as attached to no noun ideas, and a great quantity
of abstract nouns such as "Liberty," "Progress," without which no refined
inhabitant could consider a sentence complete. He would introduce them
into a discussion on the most material subjects. "The immoral snub-nose,"
"the unprogressive teeth," "lascivious music," "reactionary eyebrows" ---
such were phrases familiar to all."To eat again, to sleep again, to work
again, to find the light --- that is Liberty, that is Progress" was a
proverb common in every mouth.
The religion of the people was Protestant Christianity in all essentials,
but with an even closer dependence upon God. They asserted its formulae,
without attaching any meaning to the words, in a manner both reverent and
passionate. Sexual life was entirely forbidden to the workers, a single
breach implying relegation to the phosphorus works.
In every field was, however, an enormous tablet of rock,carved on one
side with a representation of the three stages of life: the fields, the
labour mill, the factory; and on the other side with these words: "To
enter Atlas, fly." Beneath this an elaborate series of graphic pictures
showed how to acquire the art of flying. During all the generations of
Atlas, not one man had been known to take advantage of these
instructions.
The principal fear of the populace was a variation of any kind from
routine. For any such the people had one word only, though this word
changed its annotation in different centuries. "Witchcraft," "Heresy,"
"Madness," "Bad Form," "Sex-Perversion," "Black Magic" were its principal
shapes in the last four thousand years of the dominion of Atlas.
Sneezing, idleness, smiling, were regarded as premonitory. Any cessation
from speech, even for a moment to take breath, was considered highly
dangerous. The wish to be alone was worse than all; the delinquent would
be seized by his fellows, and either killed outright or thrust into the
compound of the phosphorus factory, from which there was no egress.
The habits of the people were incredibly disgusting. Their principal
relaxations were art, music and the drama, in which they could show
achievement hardly inferior to that of Henry Arthur Jones, Pinero, Lehar,
George Dance, Luke Fildes, and Thomas Sidney Cooper.
Of medicine they were happily ignorant. The outdoor life in that equable
climate bred strong youths and maidens, and the first symptoms of illness
in a worker was held to impair his efficiency and qualify him for the
phosphorous factory. Wages were permanently high, and as there were no
merchants even of alcohol, whose use was forbidden, every man saved all
his earnings, and died rich. At his death his savings went back to the
community. Taxation was consequently unnecessary. Clothes were
unnecessary and unknown, and the "bread from heaven" was the "free gift
of God." The dead were thrown to the amphibians.
[#3] The same danger to society in our own time has been
forseen, and an identical remedy discovered and applied in
compulsory education and cheap newspapers.
Each man built his own shelter of the rough stone sponge which abounded.
The word "house" was used only in Atlas; the servile race called its huts
"Hloklost" (equivalent to the English word "home"). Discontent was
absolutely unknown. It had not been considered necessary to prohibit
traffic with foreign countries, as the inhabitants of such were esteemed
barbarians. Had a ship landed men, they would have been murdered to a
man, supposing that Atlas had permitted any approach to its shores. That
it hindered such, and by infallible means, was due to other
considerations, whose nature will form the subject of a subsequent
chapter.
This then is the nature of the plains beneath Atlas, and the character of
the servile race.
II
OF THE RACE OF ATLAS.
In the city or "house" which was formed from the crest of every mountain,
dwelt a race not greatly superior in height to our own, but of vaster
frame. The bulk and strength of the bear is not inappropriate as a simile
for the lower classes; the higher had the enormous chest and shoulders
and the lean haunches of the lion. This strength gave an infallible
beauty, made monstrous by their most inexorable law, that every child who
developed no special feature in the first seven years should be
sacrificed to the Gods. This special feature might be a nose of
prodigious size, hands and wrists of gigantic strength, a gorilla jaw, an
elephant ear --- or any of these might entitle its owner to life:[4] for
in all such variations from the normal they perceived the possibility of
a development of the race. Men and women were hairy as the ourang-outang
and all were closely shaven from head to foot. It had been found that
this practice developed tactile sensibility. It was also done in
reverence to the "Living Atla," of which more in its place.
The lower class were few in number. Its function was to superintend the
servile race, to bring the food of the children to the banqueting-hall,
to remove the same, to attend to the disposition of the "light-screens,"
to ensure the continuance of the race by the begetting, bearing and
nourishing of the children.
The priestly class was concerned with the further preparation of the Zro
supplied by the labour-mills, and its impregnation with phosphorus. This
class had much leisure for "work," a subject to be explained later.
The High Priests and High Priestesses were restricted in number to eleven
times thirty-three in any one "house." To them were entrusted the final
secrets of Atlas, and to them was confided the conduct of the experiments
in which every will was bound up.[5]
The colour of the Atlanteans was very various, though the hair was
invariably of a fiery chestnut with bluish reflections. One might see
women whiter than Aphrodite, others tawny as Cleopatra, others yellow as
Tu-Chi, others of a strange, subtle blue like the tattooed faces of Chin
women, others again red as copper. Green was however a prohibited hue for
women, and red was not liked in men. Violet was rare, but highly prized,
and children born of that colour were specially reared by the High
Priestesses.
However, in one part of the body all the women were perfectly black with
a blackness no negro can equal; from this circumstance comes the name
Atlas. It is absurdly attributed by some authors to the deposit of excess
of phosphorus in the Zro. I need only point out that the mark existed
long before the discovery of black phosphorus. It is evidently a racial
stigma. It was the birth of a girl child without this mark which raised
her mother to the rank of goddess, and ended the terrestrial adventure of
the Atlanteans, as will presently appear.
Of the ethics of this people little need be said. Their word for "right"
is "phph" made by the blowing with the jaw drawn sharply across from left
to right, thus meaning "a spiral life contrary to the course of the Sun."
We may
[#4] Gautama Buddha was the reincarnation or legend of a
previous Buddha who was a missionary from Atlas, hence the
account of his immovable neck, the ears that he could fold over
his face, and other monstrous details.
[#5] There was a Governor of these, of whose name, nature and
function I am not permitted to speak.
*************
assume it as "contrary." "Whatever is, is wrong" seems to have been their
first principle. Legs were "wrong" because they only carry you five miles
in the hour: let us refuse to walk; let us ride horseback. So the horse
is "wrong" compared to the train and the motor-car; and these are "wrong"
to the aeroplane. If speed had been the Atlantean's object, he would have
thought aeroplanes "wrong" and all else too, so long as the speed of
light was not surpassed by him.
Curious survivals of these laws are found in the Jewish transcript of the
Egyptian code, which they, being a slave race, interpreted in the reverse
manner.
"Thou shalt not make any graven image." Every male child on attaining
manhood, had a graven image given him to worship, a miracle-working
image, whose principle exploits he would tattoo upon it.
"Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy." The Atlantean kept one day
in seven for all purposes unconnected with his principle task.
"Thou shalt not commit adultery." Though the Atlanteans married,
intercourse with the wife was the only act forbidden.
"Honour thy father and thy mother." On the contrary, they worshipped
their children, as if to say: "This is the God whom I have made in my own
likeness."
Similarly, there is one exception and one only to the rule of silence. It
is the utterance of the 'Name' which it is death to pronounce. This word
was constantly in their mouths; it is "Zcrra", a sort of venomous
throat-gargling. Hence, possibly the Gaelic "Scurr" "speak," English
"Scaur" or "Scar" in Yorkshire and the Pennines. "Zcrra" is also the name
of the "High House," and of the graven image referred to above.
Others traces may be found in folklore; some mere superstitions. Thus the
correct number for a banquet was thirteen, because if there were only one
more sign in the Zodiac, the year would be a month longer, and one would
have more time "for work." This is probably a debased Egyptian notion.
Atlanteans knew better than anyone that the Zodiac is only an arbitrary
division. Still it may be laid down that the impossible never daunted
Atlas. If one said, "Two and two make Four" his thought would be "Yes,
damn it!"[6]
I now explain the language of Atlas. The third and greatest of their
philosophers saw that speech had wrought more harm than good, and he
consequently instituted a peculiar rite. Two men were chosen by lot to
preserve the language, which, by the way, consisted of monosyllables
only, two hundred and fourteen in number, to each of which was attached a
diacritical gesture, usually ideographic.
Thus "wrong" is given as "phph" moving the jaw from right to left. Wiping
the brow with "phph" means "hot," hollowing the hands over the mouth
"fire," striking the throat "to die;" so that each "radical" may have
hundreds of gesture-derivatives. Grammar, by the way, hardly existed, the
quick apprehension of the Atlanteans rendering it unnecessary.
These two men then departed to a cavern on the side of the mountain just
above the cliff, and there for a year they remained, speaking the
language and carving it symbolically upon the rock. At the end of the
year they returned; the elder is sacrificed and the younger returns with
a volunteer, usually one who wishes to expiate a fault, and teaches him
the language. During his visit he observes whether any new thing needs a
name, and if so he invents it, and adds it to the language. This process
continued to the end. The rest of the people abandoned altogether the use
of speech, only a few years' practice enabling them to dispense with the
radicle. They then sought to do without
[#6] One of the most brilliant children committed suicide on
learning that he could not move his upper jaw. This boy is one
of the eleven heroes who had statues in the High House. And the
Atlantean for "sorrow" in its ultimate sense ("dukka" or
"weltschmerz") is to wrench at the upper jaw.
*************
gesture, and in eight generations the difficulty was conquered, and
telepathy[7] established. Research then devoted itself to the task of
doing without thought; this will be discussed in detail in the proper
place. There was also a "listener," three men who took turns to sit upon
the highest peak, above the "light-screens," and whose duty it was to
give the alarm if any noise disturbed Atlas. On their report that High
Priest charged with active governorship would take steps to ascertain and
destroy the cause.
The "light-screens" spoken of were a contrivance of laminae of a certain
spar such that the light and heat of the Sun were completely cut off, not
by opacity, but by what we call "interference." In this way other subtle
rays of the Sun entered the "house," these rays being supposed to be
necessary to life. These matters were the subjects of the deepest
controversy. Some held that these rays themselves were injurious and
should be excluded. Others considered that the light-screens should be
put in position during moonlight, instead of being opened at sunset, as
was the custom. This, however, was never attempted, the great mass of the
people being devoted to the Moon. Others wished full sunlight, the aim of
Atlas being (they thought) to reach the Sun. But this theory contradicted
the prime axiom of attaining things through their opposites, and was only
held by the lower classes, who were not initiated into this doctrine.
The "houses" of Atlas were carved from the living rock by the action of
Zro in its seventh precipitation. Enormously solid, the walls were lofty
and smoother than glass, though the pavements were rough and broken
almost everywhere for a reason which I am not permitted to disclose. The
passages were invariably narrow, so that two persons could never pass
each other. When two met, it was the law to greet by joining in "work"
and then going away together on their separate errands, or passing one
above the other. This was done purposely, so as to remind every man of
his duty to Atlas on every occasion on which he might meet a
fellow-citizen.
The Banqueting-Hall of the children was usually very large. The
furniture, which had been brought by the first colonists, and gradually
disused by adults, never needed repair. A vast open doorway facing North
opened on the mountainside on to the vineyards and orchards, the meadows
and gardens, in which the children passed their time. Suckled by the
mother for three months only, the child was then already able to nourish
itself on the bread and wine, and on the flesh of the amphibious herds,
of which there were several kinds; one a piglike animal with flesh
resembling wild duck, another a sort of amatee tasting like salmon, its
fat being somewhat like caviar in everything but texture, and a sure
specific for any of childhood's troubles. A third, an ancestor of our
hippopotamus, was really tamed, and was employed by the serviles for
preparing the ground for the corn, trampling through the fields while
they were covered with sea-water, and thus leaving deep holes in which
the seeds were cast. Its flesh was not unlike bear, but more delicate.
Notable, too, was the great quantity of turtle; also the giant oysters,
the huge deep sea crabs, a kind of octopus whose flesh made a nutritious
and elegant soup, and innumerable shell-fish, added to the table. The
waterways were haunted by shoals of a small and poisonous fish,[8] whose
bite was immediate death to man, a fact which altogether cut off
communication between one island and another except by air, as the
hippopotamus-animal, although immune to its bite, was unable to swim.
Of the sleeping chambers I shall tell more particularly in the course of
my remarks on Zro.
[#7] This system of communication has great advantages over any
other. It is independent of distance, and dependent on the will
of the transmitter. Telepathic messages could not be "tapped"
or miscarry in any way.
[#8] Called by them Zhee-Zhou, in imitation of the swish of the
tail and the cry of its victim.
*************
III
OF THE AIM OF THE MAGICIANS OF ATLAS:
OF ZRO; AND ITS PROPERTIES AND USES:
OF THAT WHICH COMBINED WITH IT:
AND OF BLACKPHOSPHORUS.
It was the most ancient tradition of the Atlantean Magicians that they
were the survivors of a race inhabiting a country called Lemuria, of
which the South Pacific archipelago may be the remains. These Lemurians
had, they held, built up a civilization equal, if not superior to their
own; but through a misunderstanding of magical law --- some said the 2nd,
some the 8th, some the 23rd --- had involved themselves and their land in
ruin. Others thought that the Lemurians had succeeded in their magical
task, and broken their temple. In any case, it was the secret Lemurian
tradition that they themselves represented the survivals of a yet earlier
race who lived on ice, and they of yet another who lived in fire, and
they again of earlier colonists from Mars. The theory, in fine, was that
the aim of man is to attain the Sun, whence, according to one school of
cosmology, he was exiled in the cosmic catastrophe which resulted in the
formation of Neptune. His task on any given planet was therefore to
overturn the laws of Nature on that planet, thus mastering it
sufficiently to enable him to make the leap to the next planet inward.
Exactly how and in what sense the leap was made remains obscure, even to
the heirs of Atlantis.[9]
The men of Atlas could fly, it is true, and that by a method so simple
that men will laugh outright when it is rediscovered; but they needed air
to support them; they could not confront the cold and emptiness of space.
Was it in some subtler body that they conveyed the Palladium? Or, content
to die, could they project some vehicle across so great a distance? The
answer to such questions probably lies in the recovery by mankind of the
knowledge of Zro and its properties.
Beneath the labour mills[10] run troughs[11]in which the sweat of the
workers collects and drains off into an open basin without the mill. In
this basin churns with immense rapidity --- through multiple bevel
gearing --- a sort of paddle with knife edges. The sweat is thus churned
into froth, and gradually disappears, and is as continually replaced. The
workers toil in shifts --- eight hours work, four hours repose, eight
hours work, four hours rest and recreation. The mills never cease day or
night.
The basin is of polished silver and agate, and is set at an angle, facing
two enormous spheres of crystal, encased in a sort of trellis made of a
certain greenish metal, its optical focus at a point midway between the
two.
The only sign of activity is that out of this focus a spark crackles
unless the air be dry, a condition difficult to secure in this part of
the world, although fans blow air, dried over chloride of calcium and
sulphuric acid, over the globes and their focus. These fans are worked by
tidal power, human labour being appropriated solely to the one use.
[#9] The point was discussed fully, and finally relegated, in
the Council of Stockholm, 1913.
[#10] The scene is so real to me that I find it impossible to
avoid using the historic present here and elsewhere,
inadvertently.
[#11] There are six other pieces of apparatus to insulate and
carry to the basin the six subtler principles of sweat.
*************
In the temple of the "house" are two globes similar to those upon the
plains, and the mysterious force generated below is transferred to those
above, collecting within them. Now the name of this substance is always
Zro, but in its first state the gesture is a twiddling of the thumbs. In
its second, it is a rapid twittering of the fingers, and in its third
state of distillation it is a screwing of the hands together. Within the
spheres it sublimes suddenly in the air as a snaky powder (4) of silver,
which immediately turns to an iridescent fluid (5) that is forced up, by
its own need of expansion, through a fountain into the temple, on whose
floor it lies (6) in a semi-solid condition. Expert Priests gather this
in their hands, and rapidly shape it into its seventh state, when it is a
knife of diamond, but alive. An instrument like a Mexican machete is used
to carve rocks. The edge shears them, the back smooths them. The rock
behaves exactly like wax, responsive to the lightest touch. What is not
used for weapons is then gathered up swiftly and kneaded by women of the
rank of High Priestess. It is not known even to the High Priests with
what they knead it, but in its eighth stage it is a substance solid
enough to support great weight, but eternally heaving of its own force.
Of this they make beds, so that the sleeping Atlantean is (as it were)
continually massaged. To this they attribute the fact that Atlanteans
sleep never more than half an hour, though they do so four times daily.
These beds remain active only for a few days, and they are then thrown
into the ninth stage by being taken into a room where is a cauldron of
great size. They are thrown into this and sprinkled with black
phosphorus.[12] The Zro then divides into two parts, one liquid, one
solid. Neither of these has any ascertainable properties, for it is
absolutely passive to the will of the user, who may taste therein his
utmost desire, whether for food or drink. Among adults there is no other
food or drink than this. The children are not allowed to taste it.
The black phosphorus is always added by a High Priestess, and it is not
known in what matter she does this. The Zro that may remain is the
subject of eternal experiments by the Magicians. It is generally thought
by the greatest of them that an error was committed in bringing it to a
ninth stage of division into two, and many openly deplored the discovery
of black phosphorus. All however strive in harmony to produce a tenth
stage that shall surpass the virtues of the ninth.
Theoretically it is possible to reach an eleventh stage wherein the Zro
takes human form, and lives! Opinion is divided as to whether this was
not actually done by a certain Magician at the time of the passing of
Atlas. In any case, I beg the reader to remember that I have only
described one seventh of the virtues of Zro, and I have even omitted
this, that in its ninth stage it is not only food and drink, but
Universal Medicine, if properly understood. For Zro is also a vision and
a voice!
Now the muscles of the people of Atlas are the muscles of giants, and yet
they do one thing only. And this thing is combined by the wisdom of the
Magicians, so that it is at the same time work, exercise, sport, game,
pleasure, and all else that may fulfill life.
This work never ceases. It has these parts:
1. Working "at" Zro, "i.e.", bringing it from the first stage to the
ninth.
2. Working "with" Zro, "i.e.", for one's own particular purpose.
[#12] Only the smallest quantity is required, and it is
unchanged, its function being purely catalytic. This form of
phosphorus is one of the most stable elements. It combines (so
far as is known) only with Zro. But if thrown out of such a
combination, it becomes ordinary yellow phosphorus.
*************
3. Working "for" Zro. This is the common and most honourable task, the
Zro eaten and drunken being worked into a Quintessence of higher power,
though identical in property with the common Zro. This new Zro (Atlas
Zro) goes through the same stages as the common Zro of the serviles. But
it is the result of free and joyful labour, and so serves the Magicians
in their experiments, and the Governor of all for his sustenance. None by
the way is ever wasted. For example, a tunnel was drilled completely
through the Earth and filled with Zro, and it is said that by this tunnel
the Atlanteans escaped.
This working, whether "with" or "for" Zro, requires two persons at least
at any one time and place. Great heat is generated in the working, and
the bodies of the workers are therefore sprinkled heavily with the black
phosphorus, which is incombustible. This black phosphorus, poisonous to
the servile race, becomes innocuous to anyone who has been in any way
impregnated with Zro. This itself, in its first stage, is as dangerous as
electricity of high voltage.
The reverence attached to Zro is unbounded. At one time it was hymned as
the father of the gods, and till the end all children were thought to be
"begotten of Zro," though everyone might know who was the father.[13] All
such conception was however held indignity. Its official name was "the
old experiment." It was carried on simply because the new methods of
continuing the race were not perfected. Childbirth was therefore in one
way accident; although a duty, everyone shrank from it. For though no
pain or discomfort attached to the process, it was a sort of second-best
achievement from which proud women turned contemptuously. This was in
part the reason why the father's name was never mentioned.
On several occasions in the history of Atlas the Zro "failed." Although
not changed in appearance, its properties were lost or diminished. In
such a case young men and maidens in great numbers were captured on the
plains, brought into Atlas, and offered in sacrifice to the Gods. Their
blood[14] was mingled with Zro in its third stage, and the latter
recovered its potency. Their flesh was eaten by the High Priests and
Priestesses in penance for the unknown wrong. It was subject to other and
terrible scourges, being the most sensitive as well as the strongest
thing on Earth. On one occasion it had to be treated with a fox-like
perfume prepared by the chief Magician; on another it was subjected to
streams of moonlight from parabolic mirrors.
The most serious crisis was some two thousand years before the
destruction of Atlas. One of the serviles, riding his "hippopotamus" to
the ploughing, fell off and was instantly bitten by the poisonous fish
previously described. Through an accident of boyhood he had, however, for
a reason too obscure to describe here, no such vulnerable spot as suited
the Zhee-Zhou. He survived and went to work, as it chanced, the next day.
The Zro was poisoned; a third of Atlas died within the hour; the plants
on the affected island had to be destroyed, and all its people. It was
only repopulated some three hundred and eighty years later, and then for
particular reasons of magical economy impossible to dwell upon in this
account.
Marriage was compulsory on all those whose passion had been so exclusive
and enduring as to produce two children. Further intercourse between the
pair was barred. The Magicians thought it was inimical to variation for a
woman to have more than one child ("a fortiori" two) by the same father;
and the custom further prevented those stupid sporadic outbursts of
burnt-out lust which make so many modern marriages intolerable.
Closely connected with marriage, the close of the reproductive life, is
that of death, the close of the little that remains. Death hardly
threatened the Atlantean; he would decide to "go and see," as the old
phrase ran, and take
[#13]In spite of the absolute promiscuity of the Atlanteans,
this was never in doubt, owing to the special mark of each man,
whose stigma or variation was infallibly transmitted.
[#14] This item is loosely used, as equivalent of "life." The
sacrifice is described later, and the point made clear.
*************
an overdose of a particular preparation of black phosphorus mixed with a
very little Zro in the ninth stage, which ensured a painless death. That
none ever returned was taken as proof of the supreme attractiveness of
death.
The ghoulish and necromantic practices with which Atlanteans have been
unjustly reproached never occurred. A little vampirism, perhaps, in the
early days before the perfecting of Zro; but no Atlantean was ever so
stupid or so ignorant as to confuse death with life.
Beside this voluntary death only one danger existed. As the use of Zro
guaranteed life and health and youth --- a centenarian High Priest was no
better than a kitten! --- so did its abuse spell instant corruption of
those qualities. As mentioned above, now and then the Zro itself was at
fault, and caused epidemics; but from time to time there were deaths in a
particularly loathsome form caused by what they called "misunderstanding"
the Zro.[15] Such mistakes were particularly common in the early days of
its discovery, and before its use had become well nigh a worship. The
first symptom was a crack in the skin of the temple, or sometimes of the
bridge of the nose, more rarely of an eyelid or cheek. Within a few
minutes this crack became one open sore, of horrid foetor, and within
twenty-four hours, the patient was completely rotted away, bone and
marrow. A circumstance of singular atrocity was that death never occurred
until the spinal column collapsed. No treatment could be found even to
prolong the agony by an hour. This being recognized, sufferers were
thrown from the cliffs at the first sign of the malady. In this way too
were all other corpses disposed. It was the most honourable death
possible, for becoming "bread from heaven" for the serviles, they were
again worked up into Zro itself, a transmutation which in their view
would be well worth all the "resurrections of the body" and
"immortalities of the soul" of the theoretical, dogmatic, hearsay
religions. So much then concerning Zro, and the matters immediately
connected with it.
[#15] No other disease was known after the bringing of the Zro
to its ninth stage, all indisposition being instantly cured by
a single dose.
*************
IV
OF THE SO CALLED MAGIC OF THE ATLANTEANS.
Magic in Atlas was a "Science of Sciences." It was the final integration
of all knowledge. In method its theory was differentiation, and in theory
its method was integration. For example, the fifth of the great
philosophers indicated "Everything is Zro" to the Keeper of the Speech at
the annual sacrifice. This in spite of the fact that in that very year
two new forms of Zro had been discovered by that same philosopher. It was
the third of the galaxy who announced "the ultimate analysis of sensation
is pain; that of thought, madness; that of super-consciousness (a state
of trance induced by Zro and valued above all things) annihilation."
His successor had retorted that in this was implicit a postulate that
pain, madness and annihilation were undesirable. The third admitted that
he had so meant his phrase, but destroying the postulate, still stuck to
it. All this was the foundation of much magical theory, and on these
purely psychological researches was based the whole magical practice.
"There is no God" was a commonplace. It only implied that the mind was
wrong to try to conceve within it what was by definition without it. To
set limits to anything whatever seemed to them the greatest of crimes,
the exact opposite of the true path to the Sun.
The practical side of Magic was for the most part a mere utilization of
known forces, such as are employed by modern science. But the resources
of Atlas were as great, and the advantages incomparably greater. The
whole archipelago was a laboratory. There was no question of the "cost of
research"; every man was devoted to it. Every man thought only of the
main problem "How to reach Venus" and its sub-issues. Further, the main
laws of Magic had always been found to govern and include chemical and
physical laws.
In the early days of colonization Zro was only known in its crude state;
it was the genius of a single man that obtained the third state in its
purity. From this state to the seventh it moved almost of itself, very
much as radium does. The genius, having sufficient in this seventh state,
made a sword, and completed in three days the subjugation of the servile
races. It was a stroke of fortune, this quickness, for on the fourth day
the Zro began to disintegrate. The Magicians then began to seek a means
of making this state permanent. But in this they failed,[16] so that
knives had always to be replaced twice weekly; but in the course of their
failures they discovered the infinitely more valuable eighth and ninth
stages of Zro. Tradition has preserved a hint of their efforts in Alchemy
with its problems of the fixation of the Universal Mercury, the secret of
perpetual motion, and "potable gold --- the Universal Medicine." It has
been theoretically determined towards the end of the tenth state, that
Zro should be a solid, but whether this was confirmed is beyond my
knowledge.
To return to the main magical theory, the Quintessence, said they, or
Universal Substance (which some strove to identify with Hyle, others with
the Luminiferous AEther) is the two-in-one, liquid and solid, the former
part being also twofold, fluid and gaseous, and the latter earthy and
fiery. The combination of these four phases of Zro accounted for the
universe. This
[#16] No known state of pure Zro is stable. From this it will
be seen how entirely Atlas was in the hands of the servile
races. Fortunately no trouble ever arose; the supply of labour
was always ample.
*************
quintessence is Zro in some state unknown and incalculable. Some expected
to find it in its twelth state, some in a seventeenth, others in a
thirty-seventh: all this was pure guesswork. Some tradition to this
effect appears to have reached Plato; and the neo-Platonists combined
with those Jews who had preserved fragments of the Egyptian tradition to
form a new initiated hierarchy, the echo of whose teaching is found in
Paracelsus. At one period, too, missionaries (not colonists, as has been
ignorantly asserted; there was no trouble of over-population in Atlantis)
were sent to the four quarters and parties landed in Mexico, Ireland and
Egypt. The adventures of the party who travelled South form an astounding
chapter in the history of Atlas. It was they who discovered the Magnetic
South, and whose observations rendered possible the theory which resulted
in the piercing of the Earth by Zro.[17]
There were also preparations of Zro which increased the size of the user,
and others which diminished it. In general use among the lower classes,
until the very end, was that composition which made the body light.
Careful adjustment would equalize its weight with that of the displaced
air, and movements of the limbs would then permit flying. In this way the
overseers visited the plains and returned. The other and earlier art of
flying needed no apparatus, but I am forbidden to disclose the method,
except to hint that it is connected closely with the art of "dreaming
true."
These are but a few of the Magic powers so-called of the compounds of
Zro; but they will indicate the power of Atlas by shewing what it could
afford to neglect. Yet all these powers were implicit in the process of
"working."
The art of prediction was in the same unsatisfactory state as it is in
England today. Nor was its practice encouraged. A Magician makes the
future, and does not seek to divine it. All true prediction was therefore
necessarily catastrophe. The greatest good fortune seemed worthless to an
Atlantean, since it was accident, and if accidents are to happen, one of
them may be fatal. They believed themselves to be equal to the whole
tendency of things, and proudly gazed on Nature as a man might upon a
virgin captive to his spear. Everything that was being was Zro;
everything that was Energy was "working for Zro." Outside this was but
by-product and waste-heap.
The arrangement of the houses was in accordance with the magical theory.
There was first the High House, then four (later six, last ten) "Houses
of Houses"; and to each of these was attached a varying number of
ordinary houses. The High House was the central shrine of the whole
archipelago, and must be separately described.
[#17] There was also a settlement in Finland. Its only remains
in historic periods is "Lapland Witches."
*************
V
OF THE HIGH HOUSE OF ATLAS,
OF ITS INHABITANTS, AND OF THEIR
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS,
AND OF THE LIVING ATLA.
The High House was separated from its nearest neighbor by over twenty
miles of sea. Its diameter was about an half-mile and its height four
miles. It had no plains at the base, and its cliffs went absolutely sheer
and smooth into the water. It was in shape a flattish cylinder, but the
top broadened into a pointed knob, somewhat in the style of St. Basil's
at Moscow. There was not a trace of vegetation, which by the way was
despised by the Atlanteans. A child would pick a flower contemptuously
thinking "You cannot even move about," or pet it as an English degenerate
woman does a dog. The only entrance was by an orifice at the top. But the
base was tunneled so that from every house was a channel for the Zro
which having been brought to the highest perfection was thus transferred
to headquarters. The receptacle at the base being far below the Earth,
and the Zro further heated by friction, it seethed continually into a
bluish or purplish smoke. This was the sole sustenance of the inhabitants
of the High House. In early days the old High House, in an island since
destroyed by order of the Atla, had been called the House of Blood, the
inhabitants subsisting only on blood sucked from the living. The
improvements in Zro had changed all that; but the idea was the same, to
live on the Quintessence of Life. Hence while the "houses" ate and drank
Zro, the High House drank its vapour. No children were born in it, and
none below the rank of High Priest dwelt there.
Except for one matter which was never thought of, though constantly
spoken, the inmost mystery of the High House was the "Living Atla." This
had many names, "Wordeater," "Unshaven" (because the razors of Zro were
turned on its hair), "Fireheart," "Beginning and End" and so on: but
especially a word I can only translate as "To Her," a defective pronoun
existing only in the dative. What the Living Atla really was, is a secret
of secrets.[18] We know it only from its epithets, its veils. Thus it was
"That Black which makes black white." It was "twenty-six feet high and
fifteen feet across --- Oh my Lords, it is the essence of the
Incommensurable!" It was "the wife of Zro," "the heart of Zro," "desire
of Zro," "the Atla that eats Atlas," "the swallower up of her own house,"
"the pelican," "the fire-nest of the Phoenix," according to the greatest
of the poets. And the burden of his hymns of worship was that it must be
destroyed.
It was impossible to approach the Atla without being instantly sucked up
and devoured by it. This was the greatest death, and ardently desired by
all. The favour was accorded only to those who discovered improvements in
Zro, or otherwise merited signal and supreme recognition from the state.
Hidden men listened to the cries of the victim, and thus learned the
nature of the death. It appears that the black suddenly broke into a
fiery rose, "the only[19] luminous thing in Atlas," and a shooting
forward enclosed him. For some reason which was never even guessed the
Atla refused women. Those who had seen Atla were however
[#18] There are various theories; one a sort of avatar affair,
another that the Atla is a quintessence of some kind; another
calls "To Her" the "Angel of Venus, the force of our
aspiration."
[#19] A mere compliment.
*************
useless to instruct. They came forth from the Presence smiling, and even
under the most fearful tortures that the magicians could devise,
continued to smile. This smile never left them during life, and the
conscious superiority of it was so irritating, and so contrary to the
harmony of life in Atlas that the women were killed, and their companions
for the future forbidden to approach the Atla.
Whatever theories as to its nature may have been formed by the Magicians
were upset by a famous experiment. A most holy High Priest, a man who at
puberty had insisted on immediate marriage with all the women of his
house, a Magician who had formed four new compounds of Zro, and
discovered how to pass matter through matter, was honoured by the great
death. On reaching the last corridor, where the concentrated spirals of
Zro vapour whirled up into the Presence of Atla, he bade farewell to the
appointed listeners in the manner suitable to his dignity, and then,
taking a last deep draught of Zro into his lungs, rushed into the antrum.
They heard him cry aloud "O!" with surprise, and then with inexpressible
rapture the words "Behind Atla, Otla!" which were, and still are,
completely unintelligible. Their surprise was greater, when, seven days
later he came striding past them without greeting. He went to his "house"
and shut himself up, was never seen or heard again, but was assuredly
living at the time of the "catastrophe." This man founded a school of
philosophy, or rather, it founded itself on what it supposed him to have
discovered; and this school disputes with the orthodox the credit of the
final success.
The lesser mysteries of the High House were concerned almost entirely
with the creation of life, and the bridging of the gulf between Earth and
Venus. These were connected intimately; the theory was that if Atlantean
brains could exist in bodies sufficiently subtle to traverse aether, the
task was done. Some of the experiments were crude enough, and, to our
minds, horrible. They attempted to breed a new race by crossing with
snakes, swans, horses and other animals.[20] The Greek legends of such
monsters as Chimaera, Medusa, Lamia, Minotaur, the Centaurs, the Satyrs
and the like are mere filtrations of the Atlantean tradition. The only
theory behind such experiments was that they were contrary to the natural
order, and so worth trying. Men of more scientific mind more plausibly
passed Zro vapour through sea-water; but they only created serpents of
vast size, which they cast into the sea about the High House as
guardians. The sea-serpent, whether legend or fact, is derived from this
experiment. It is quite possible that some such survive. Another school,
objecting strongly to the sex-process, "which must be transcended as the
Lemurians overcame gemmation" vivisected men and women, taking various
parts of the brain, especially the cerebellum, the pineal gland, and the
pituitary body, and cultivated them in solutions of Zro under the
invisible rays of black phosphorus. The best results of this work was a
race of translucent jelly-folk of great intellectual development; but so
far from being able to travel through space, they could hardly move in
their own element. Another school argued that as Zro in vapour combined
the virtues of the liquid and the solid Zro, so a fiery state might be
produced which would so impregnate their bodies as to make them "mates of
the aether." This school held that fiery Zro already existed in Nature,
"in the heart of the Living Atla," and asserted that those who died by
absorption into Atla passed straight to Venus. Many of them therefore
tried hard to obtain messages from that planet. Familiar with Newton's
first law of motion, they further held it possible to prepare Zro in such
a state that a current of it could never be deflected or dissipated, and
so, if it could be made in sufficient quantity, a bridge to Venus might
be built by which they might travel. They therefore tunneled through the
planet, as previously explained, to have a sort of cannon for the Zro.
But as their supply was pitifully insufficient, they endeavoured also to
prepare a Zro which would have
[#20] Especially monkeys. The results of this experiment were
sent to colonize an island, but escaped, and after many
journeys, reached Japan, where their descendants flourish
still.
*************
the power of multiplying itself. Alchemical tradition has some record of
this problem.
Yet another group of Magicians argued that as Nature had cast off the
planets from the Sun --- a disputed point, some thinking this due to
Magic, which if so completely destroys the argument --- it would be
contrary to Nature to cause the planets to fall back into it. They busied
themselves with attempts to increase the Earth's gravitational pull, and
(alternatively) to check her course. Their schemes were generally
regarded as Utopian --- yet they could boast of the discovery of the Zro
that lightened bodies, and of a kind of aether-screen which generated
mechanical power in inexhaustible quantities by making matter slightly
opaque to aether. This engine only worked on a very small scale. A screen
two inches long would tear itself from fastenings that would have held an
earthquake, while the rocks in its neighbourhood would melt in a few
minutes, and the sea boil instantly where its rays struck. The most
brilliant of this school asserted "Matter is a strain in the aether." He
explained gravitation in this way. Place two ivory spheres in a rubber
tube; the strain on the tube is least when the balls touch. The tendency
is therefore for them to come together. Friction alone checks them. Now
aether is infinitely elastic and without friction. From these data he
calculated the Law of Inverse Squares.
A more mystic school saw life everywhere. It knew all that we know, and
more, about ions and electrons; it saw every phenomenon as a
manifestation of will. The crowning glory of this school was the
discovery that Zro in its ninth stage, eaten and drunken with
concentrated intention, produced the desired result, whatever (within
wide limits) that result might be. This went far to supersede the use of
all specialized forms of Zro, and so to unify the magical practice.
It seems curious with all this Magic, Magic itself should be the thing
most deplored. But it was the means, and, as such, "that which is in
particular not the end." The word for Magic, "Ijynx", was the only
dissyllable in the language, for Magic was the essentially two-fold
thing, more two-fold (in a way) than the number two itself. It is
interesting here to sketch briefly the mathematics of Atlas. The task is
not easy, as their minds worked very differently from ours.
The number 1 was a fairly simple idea; but two was not only two, but also
"the result of adding 1 to 1" and "the root of 4." The numbers grew in
complexity out of all reason. Seven was 6 plus 1, and 5 plus 2, and 4
plus 3, and so on; as well as "the root of 49," "half 14" and the like.
They even distinguished 4 plus 3 from 3 plus 4. Each number also
represented an idea or group of ideas on all sorts of planes. It would
have been quite possible to discuss dressmaking in terms of pure number.
To give an example of the way in which their minds thought, consider the
number three. Three, in so far as it gives the first plane figure,
suggests superficies; with regard to the dimensions of space, solidity.
Three itself is therefore "that ineffably holy thing in which the
superficies is the solid." Of course hundreds of other ideas must be
added to this; and to grasp and harmonize them all in one colossal
supra-rational idea was the constant task of every mathematician. The
upshot of this was that all numbers above 33 were regarded as spurious,
illusionary; they had no real existence of their own[21]; they were
temporary compounds, unreal in very much the same sense as our square
root of 1. They were always expressed by graphic formulae, like our own
organic compounds. To take an example, the number 156 was regarded as a
sort of efflorescence of the number 7; it was never written but as
77 plus 7 plus 7 plus 77.
7
[#21] A partial exception existed for prime numbers, as being
self-generated, and each of these which had been investigated
had its special (and comparatively simple) signification.
*************
Again 11 was usually written 3 plus 5 plus 3. It was always the aim to
find symmetry in these expressions, and also "to find an easy way to 1."
This last is difficult to explain.
Eleven was their great "Key of Magic." It is a twofold number in "the act
of becoming 1." Thirty-seven was the essence of 1 inasmuch as multiplying
it by 3 gives 111, three ones, which divided again by 3 in another
manner, yield 1. "One would rather think of 48 as 37 plus 11 than as 4
times 12" is the statement of an elementary text-book dating from the
earliest days of Atlas. It was a sort of moral duty to teach the mind to
think in this manner.
The number 7 was the "perfect number" with them as with us, but for very
different reasons. It was the link between Earth and Venus, for one
thing; I cannot explain why. It was "the number of Atla," and the "house
of success" (two being the "house of battle"). It was also grace,
softness, ease, healing and "joy of Zro" as well as "play of phosphorus."
Many mathematicians, however, attacked it with rigour; there was at one
time an almost general consent to replace it by 8, and its
"rapture-combination" 31, by 33. Despite the intense preoccupation with
such ideas, mathematics as we know them had reached a perfection which if
it does not surpass that of our own civilization, fails principally
because of its theorems, handed down to Euclid and Pythagoras, although
imperfectly, formed a springboard whence we might leap.
The initiation of children was also a matter reserved for the High House.
Weaned at three months, the children were tended by the lower classes
until the age of puberty, an occurrence which fitted them at once for
initiation. A legate from the High House was sent for, and in his
presence the child was brought, acquainted with Zro by its father and
mother, and full instruction in "working" was further conferred by any
member of the "house" who chose to do so, this in practice meaning by
everybody. The ceremonies were frequently long and exhausting; children
often enough died in the course of them. This was not regarded as a
serious calamity; some schools of Magicians even pretended to rejoice.
The representatives of the High House had a prior right to the parents of
the child; at times he conducted the initiation in person, a high honour,
but invariably fatal. On rare occasions male children were sent over to
the Atla to be devoured. The parents of so fortunate a child were
advanced in rank on the spot, and had special privileges conferred on
them, sometimes even being transferred to a "House of Houses." All those
who dwelt in the High House were veiled whenever they appeared, in order
to prevent it being known that they were of the same appearance in all
respects as their inferiors. This ordinance had been made after the Great
Conspiracy, with which I shall deal in the chapter on History.
VI
OF THE UNDERGROUND GARDENS OF ATLAS,
AND OF THE ALLEGED COMMERCE
OF THE ATLANTEANS WITH INCUBI, SUCCUBI,
AND THE DEMONS OF DARKNESS.
I have referred to the contempt with which the Atlanteans were prone to
regard the vegetable kingdom. Animals, including man, shared their scorn.
The idea may have been that with their advantages they ought to have done
much better for themselves. Minerals, however, were regarded as helpless;
and hence the extraordinary attention paid to them. Beneath the "houses"
the rock had been tunneled out into grottos, some in odd fantastic forms,
but most in immense polyhedra or combinations of curves. Each "house" had
some twenty of such gardens. Three reagents were used in the cultivation;
the "seed of metals," "the seed of Light," and the seed of " ," an
untranslatable idea approximating to our mystic's interpretation of
"Alpha and Omega." The two former produced simple effects, the first
formed jewels, self-luminious, which yet grew like flowers, the second
similar effects with metals; while the third brought any mineral to
flower in the most extravagant combinations of colour and form. All such
conditions as texture, hardness, elasticity, and physical attributes in
general, were considered worthy of the profoundest attention.
As an instance of these, I may describe particular gardens. One would
have a roof of softly-glowing sapphires, foxglove, bluebell or gentian,
and between these champak stars of ruby. The walls would be covered with
tendrils of vine within whose depths lurked tiny blossoms of amethyst.
The floor would be of malachite, but alive, growing as a coral does,
softer than any earthly moss and more elastic to the tread. On every
darker leaf might glow dew-drops of self-strung diamond formed from the
carbon dioxide of the air by the action of the "seed of Light." Another
grotto would be a monochrome of blue, various copper salts being
"planted" everywhere, and growing in incrustations and festoons of every
shade of blue from the faintest tinge of coerulean azure and green and
grey, in whose abyss would be seen shapes of anemonies, perhaps of such
hues as iron oxide, silver chromate, and cupramonium cyanurate. All this
floor would in all respects resemble water but for its greater solidity,
and floating on it would be giant lilies, great green leaves of emerald
with cups of pearl not less than twelve feet in diameter, with corollae
of pure gold, so fine that they glimmered green, with pistils of platinum
on whose tops trembled great pigeon-blooded rubies. Another might be
wholly of metal, a mere bower of jasmine, with its floor of violets. The
law of growth of these creatures of wisdom was not that of plants or
animals, or even of crystals; it was that of the Earth. Constantly
growing as the planet approached the Sun, they as steadily shrank as she
departed to aphelion. This was not growth and decay, but the rise and
fall of an eternal bosom. It is probable, too, that this is one of the
reasons why Atlas neglected the higher kingdoms; they had learned to
grow, but on wrong lines, and it was too late to endeavour to correct the
error.
These gardens were the principal places of working. It was hardly
possible to pass from one place to another without coming upon one of
them, so cunningly were they distributed; and in every garden would be
found, joyful and noble, parties of workers intent on their beloved task.
The passer-by would gladly join one of such parties, engage in the work
for so long as he wished, and then proceed upon his private business. In
these same gardens too, were salvers and goblets always filled with Zro,
and after toil, refreshment fitted the workers to return to labour.
Now of these workings in the gardens strange tales are told. It is said
that the inhabitants falling to repose were visited in sleep by "incubi"
and "succubi" (whatever the nature of these may be, and I by no means
concur in the opinion of Sinistrari), and that they welcomed such with
eagerness. Nay, darker legends tell of infamous commerce and intercourse
with demons foul and malicious, and pretend that the power of Atlas was
devilish, and that the catastrophe was the judgement of God. These
mediaeval fables of the debased and perverted phallicism miscalled
Christianity are unworthy even to be refuted, founded as they are on
hypotheses contrary to common sense. Nor would they who knew themselves
masters of the Earth have deigned to degrade themselves, and moreover to
vitiate their whole work by commerce with inferiors. If there be any
truth whatever in these stories, it will then be more easily supposable
that the Atlanteans aspiring to journey sunwards to Venus, might invoke
the beings of that planet, should it be possible for them to travel to
us. And that this is impossible, who can assert? On the theory of the
Magicians, power increases as the Sun is approached, the inhabitants of
Earth being more highly infused with the magical force of Our Star than
those of Mars, and they again more than those of great Jupiter, gloomy
and disastrous Saturn and Uranus, or Neptune lost in star-dreams. Again,
the powers of each particular planet may, nay, must be wholly diverse. So
fundamental a condition of existence as the value of "g" being vastly
various, must not the inhabitants differ equally in body and in mind?
What lives on the minute and airless Moon can be no inhabitant of what
may hide beneath the flaming envelope of the Sun, with its fountains of
hydrogen flaming an hundred thousand miles into the aether. And surely so
wild an ambition as that of Atlas would not have been held by beings so
wise and powerful for so many centuries had they not either a sure memory
of coming from Mars, or some earnest of their eventual departure to
Venus. Man does not persist in the chimerical for more than a few
generations. Alchemy achieved results so startling and so beneficial to
humanity at large --- one need only mention the discovery of zinc,
antimony, hydrogen, opium, gas itself --- that the original ideals were
changed for others more limited and more practical --- or at least more
immediately realisable.
Nor is this view unsupported by testimony of a sort. "Great and glorious,
rays of our father the Sun," says one of the poets of Atlas, "are they
within us. Let us call them forth by utterance that is not uttered, by
the gesture that is not made, by the working that is above all working,
for they are great and glorious, rays of our father the Sun. Then from
our bride that waits for us in the nuptial chamber, green in the green
West, blue in the blue East, exalted above our father in the even and in
the morn, spring forth our heirs and our hosts, to greet us in the
darkness. Dim-glimmering are our gardens in the light of the seed of
light; they are peopled with shadows; they take form; they are as
serpents, they are as trees, they are as the holy "Zcrra", they are as
all things straight or curved, they are winged, they are wonderful. With
us do they work, and that which was but one is seven, and that which was
two is become eleven! With us do they work, and give us of the draught
miraculous; us do they instruct in Magic, and feed us the delicate food.
Let us call forth them that are within us, that they that are without may
enter in, as it was made manifest by Him that maketh secret." This
passage, not devoid of a rude eloquence, makes clear what was held in
exoteric circles. For in Atlas the poet was not as in England a holy and
exalted being, one set apart for his high calling, throned in the hearts
of the people, cherished by kings and nobles, one on whom no wealth and
honour are too great to shower, but one of the people themselves, of no
greater consequence than any other. Every man was an artist in so far as
he was a man; and every man being equally so in nature, whether so in
achievement or not mattered nothing, as appreciation was of no moment.
Accomplishing Art for the sake of Art, the interest of the creator in his
work died with its creation. It may therefore be possible that these
words are those of poetic exaggeration, or that there is a concealed
meaning in them, or that they are intended to mask and mislead, or that
the poet was not himself fully instructed. Indeed it is certain that only
the High House had the secrets of Atlas, and that the Magicians of the
House held the undeniable if sometimes dangerous doctrine that the truth
and falsehood of any statement alternated as do day and night according
to the status of the hearer of the statement. However, so strong is the
tradition concerning the "Angel of Venus" that it must at least be
considered carefully. The theory appears to have been that if the
Magicians of Venus invited the Atlanteans, means would assuredly follow,
just as if a King summons a paralysed man to his presence, he will also
send officers to convey him. Now whether the "Angel of Venus" is really
an angel in anything like the modern sense of the word, or merely a title
of one of the principal Magicians of the planet, it is evident that the
High House ardently desired his presence. That this might be manifested
by the birth of a child "without the stain of Atla" was clearly an
ultimate desideratum, an outward and visible sign of redemption, an
obvious guarantee of the reality of the occurrence. It was then a Virgin
High Priestess who achieved so notable a renown; whether or not this is a
mere poetic parable of the abiogenesis --- if it is indeed fair so to
describe it --- of the eleventh stage of Zro is another and an open
question. In any case, such is the tradition, and numerous parodies of it
are still extant in the stories of the births of Romulus and Remus,
Bacchus, Buddha and many other legendary heroes of modern times; we even
catch an echo in the myths of such barbarian lands as Syria.
So much and no more concerning the Underground Gardens of Atlas, and of
their commerce with the inhabitants of Venus.
VII
OF MARRIAGE AND OTHER CURIOUS
CUSTOMS OF THE ATLANTEANS:
AND OF SACRIFICES TO THE GODS.
I have already adverted to that most singular conception of the duty of
the married which opposes the customs of Atlas to those of any other race
on Earth. But the considerations which established it have yet to be
discussed. I will not insist on that gross and cynical point of view
which might perceive in English marriage today a practical vindication of
the Atlantean position. On the contrary, in Atlas marriage formed the
loftiest of ideals. It resembles the "Hermetic marriage" of certain
alchemists. The bond between the parties was only stronger for the
absence of the lower link. The idea underlying this was in the main a
particular case of the general proposition that whatever was natural
should be transcended. As will be seen in the final chapter, the very
stigma of success in their Great Work was the transcending of the sexual
process. The bond of marriage was not, however, entirely of this negative
character. It had its positive side, and here closely resembled the
so-called Christian doctrine of Christ and the church. Husband and wife
were to be father and daughter, mother and son, brother and sister,
teacher and pupil, and above all, friends. And this relation was to
subsist on all planes. The hieroglyph of love was a cross; that of
marriage, parallel straight lines, and as the cross was to be transcended
in the circle, so were these lines to converge not on Earth, but in
Venus. In the meanwhile each partner led his own free life; and it often
occurred that a woman, having borne two children to a man and married
him, would bear two children to another man, and so on perhaps for two
centuries, thus acquiring a cohort of husbands. Such an arrangement must
clearly have lead to grave confusion had any question of property and
inheritance been involved, but notions so unfortunate were unknown. Where
all had every heart's desire, of what value were they? It is true that
some division of labour (though little) was involved in the social
scheme, but it occurred to no one to regard the supervision of serviles
as less honourable than the offering of great sacrifices. In a perfect
organism one part is as necessary and decent as any other part, and no
sane observer can reason otherwise. For a perfect organism has a single
definite aim, and the only dishonourable feather on an arrow would be one
that was out of place. Human nature being what it is, one may
nevertheless agree that this measureless content with the existing order,
except in so far as the purpose of the establishment of that order was
unfulfilled, was rendered possible by the extreme lightness of the toil
demanded of any individual. But it is impossible for slaves to understand
free men. It is always a wonder to Englishmen that a man should devote
himself to unremitting toil for an idea. He is called a crank, basely
slandered, the lowest motives being without any reason assigned to his
actions, mocked, persecuted, perhaps crucified. This is partly
forgivable, as in England philanthropy is almost invariably the mask of
vice and fraud.
The ceremony of marriage[22] was simple, dignified, yet poignant. The
lovers in the presence of their whole house, publicly embraced for the
last time. Their two children pressed them apart. Elevating their hands
in a crossed clasp they gave way, and the children passed through,
preceding a most holy image which was borne by a Priest and Priestess
between them. Then they parted, and each was severally congratulated and
embraced by any of the others who chose, and the Priest and Priestess
then, exalting the image and setting it in a suitable shrine, closed the
ceremony by the command "To work" and adding force to the same by their
example.
The education of the children was another important matter in which their
ideas were wholly opposed to our own. It ceased altogether at the age of
puberty, which sometimes as early as six, never later than fourteen. Were
it so delayed, the delinquent was crowned in mockery with a square black
cap, sometimes tasselated, and sent among the serviles to instruct them
in religion and similar branches of learning, and never permitted to
return to Atlas. The ignorance and superstition of the plains was thus
kept at a proper height.
The method of education was indeed singular. Certain Atlanteans who made
it their study would place the various articles in the hands of the
infants, and observe what use they made of them. In the course of a few
months the experts had accurately mapped the psychology of the child, and
it was led in accordance therewith. The marriage customs of Atlas allowed
no too rapid growth in numbers, and it was therefore easy to give each
child attention. The method of opposition was again employed in
education, the child's natural wish being constantly stimulated by a
parallel training in the contrary subject. Children were also shewn a
series of ordered facts, and an explanation given. But not the least
pains was taken to ascertain whether the child had retained those
instructions; they were left as impressions on the mind. The brain was
not injured by the strain of being constantly forced to bring up its
stores from the subconscious. It was found in practice that every child
learnt everything that it was shown, and that this learning was always
ready for use, while the consciousness was never wearied or overcrowded.
It was also found that those whose memories were what we call good were
precisely those who failed to develop in other ways more useful to
society.
The most peculiar of their methods was the search for genius. It was the
business of the experts to pay the most serious and reverent attention to
all that a child did, and whenever they failed to understand the workings
of its mind, to place it under the charge of a special guardian, who did
his utmost to comprehend sufficiently to be able to encourage it to
become yet more unintelligible.
"Apud eos membrum virile membrano lucido erat; ob quod qualis
circumscisio die nativitatis facta erat. Vix credere dignum est, tanquam
verum, feminarum montes venereales similutidine facies fuere, facies
demonicae, sardonicae, Satyricae, cujus os erat os vulvae, res horribiles
atque ridiculosa. Ferunt similia de virorum membris, quae fingunt sicut
imagines homunculorum fuere. Lege --- Judice --- Tace."
Many of the men had ossified extensions of the frontal process which
amounted to horns, and the formation was occasionally found in the higher
types of women. Curiously carven head-dresses of gold were worn by both
sexes, and those of priestly rank adorned these with living serpents, and
the High Priests yet further with feathers or with wings, such being not
the spoils of dead birds, but the blossoms of the live gold of the
crowns. Some tradition of this custom is found in the pictures of the
"Gods" of Egypt, these gods being merely the Atlanteans whose mission
civilized the country. The names of some of the
[#22] There was also the marriage of those of the Magicians who
refused all intercourse with the opposite sex, and were
therefore married to the whole sex as such. Here was no
ceremony used; but each had a special mark signifying that he
or she was thus consecrated.
*************
earlier gods confirm this. "Nu" (Hebrew "Noah") is Atlantean for arch,
"Zu" (Egyptian "Shu") for many ideas connecting with wind, "Asi" means
"cum quasi serpens," obviously the name of an actual High Priestess. "Ra"
is pure Atlantean for Sun, and "'Mse" (Egyptian Chomse) for moon. The
idea in "'Mse" is that of a strong woman ("'M") closing the mouth of a
Serpent ("S") or dragon, and from this we have the XIth card of the
Bohemian Tarot, and the legend in the "Apocalypse." In the mystic Greek
used by the Gnostics we find similar traces, "Sofia" being for "S Ph,"
giving the idea of "serpent breath" "i.e." wisdom. "IAO" is "PHALLOS,"
"KTEIS," "PROKTOS". The word "LOGOS" means Boy ("G") naturally engendered
of the Virgin ("L") and the Serpent ("S"). "THEOS" (root "O," first
written "0") means the Sun in his strength and also the Lingam-Yoni
conjoined. "CHRISTOS" is "The love of passion of the Rising Sun ("R") and
the Serpent" ("S"). The "I" and "T" indicate certain details which are
foreign to the present discussion. "NEUMA" (Atlantean "NM") is the "Arch
of the Woman," "MARIA," the Woman of the Sun.[23] The words "MEITHRAS"
and "ABRAXAS" are again derived from Atlas. "The woman entered, Lingam
being conjoined with Yoni, bears the Sun from her serpent womb" and "From
the womb's mouth the Sun (cometh seeking) a womb for his desire, even the
womb of a serpent," the course of the year being signified in this
manner, as usualy with the ancients. This plain of an idea corresponding
to each letter was carried out very strictly: thus "TLA," black, means
the stigma or mark of the virgin's womb, "IA" (Hail! Greeting!) "Face to
Face," from the other peculiarity described above. These few examples
will suffice to indicate the singular character of the language,[24] and
the way in which its essential dogmatic symbols have been incorporated by
the heirs of Atlas in the inmost sanctuaries of races which they deemed
worthy of such assistance.
I must not pass over in silence the question of sacrifice to the gods, to
which a passing reference has already been made. Such sacrifices were not
very frequent; the victims were the "failures," those who were useless to
the social economy.[25] As they represented capital expenditure, the
object was to recover this, at least, since no interest could be
expected. The victim was therefore handed over to a High Priest or
Priestess, who extracted the life by an instrument devised for and
excellently adapted to the purpose, so that it died of exhaustion. The
life thus regained was given to "the gods" in a manner too complex to be
described in this brief account.
The early age at which puberty occurred was due to design. The normal
period of gestation had also been shortened to four months. This was all
part of the scheme to economize time. Old age had been almost done away
with by the great readiness of the Atlanteans to "go and see" at the
first sign of failing power. No doubt, further improvements would have
been made but for the loss of interest in the matter, all generation
being regarded as "the old experiment," not likely to repay the trouble
of further research. In the 200 or 300 years of a man's full vigour, only
8 years on the average was the wastage of childhood, and even this was
not all waste, since some time at least must be necessary for the experts
to discover and direct the tendencies of the mind. The body ought
therefore to be regarded as an engine, the theoretical limit of whose
efficiency had been reached.
So much I mention of the customs of the Atlanteans with regard to
marriage, education and religious sacrifices.
[#23] MAR is Atlantean (also Sanscrit) for die. This word
throws light on their conception of death.
[#24] Note that no tautologies defile its linguistic wells. "As
I have written" is never changed to "as I have observed, noted,
described, said, indicated, remarked, pointed out" and so on.
[#25] I must revert for a moment to the language. OIK, Greek
"OIKOS" meant the "House of the penetrating men." NOM, Greek
"NOMOS", the "arch of the House of the Women," "i.e." that
which roofed them in or protected them. Hence "the law."
*************
VIII
OF THE HISTORY OF ATLAS, FROM
ITS EARLIEST ORIGINS TO THE
PERIOD IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING
THE CATASTROPHE.
The origin of Atlas is lost in the obscurity of antiquity. The official
religious explanation is this: "We came across the waters on the living
Atla," which is pious but improbable. A mystic meaning is to be
suspected. The lay historian says "We came, escaping from destruction,
eight persons in a ship, bearing the living Zro." This reminds me one of
later legends of presumably equal value. Poets frankly claim "We
descended from heaven," and it has been seriously urged that seafarers
would have preferred the plains to the rocks. The law of contrariety to
Nature explains this away. Others maintain that the earliest settlers
came "by air," or "through air." This must mean balloons or airplanes, as
flying was not known until centuries after. What is definitely known is
that the earliest settlers were of a purely fighting race.
An Atlantean Homer, Ylo, has described the first battle in such detail as
to leave no doubt that he is retelling facts --- a marked contradiction
to his earlier books. There appear to have been but few Atlanteans,
unless the names given are those of chiefs, which internal evidence
contraverts. The natives were armed with every possible instrument of
precision, having cavalry and artillery in abundance, as well as weapons
that must have been as superior to the modern rifle (unless Ylo
exaggerates) as that is to the arquebus. In spite of this the men of
Atlas "smote them with rods" or "fell upon them with their cones," and
routed them utterly. This mention of rods and cones has absurdly
suggested to commentators that the Atlanteans used their eyes, and
hypnotized the enemy. To state such an opinion is sufficient to expose
its author to the contempt of the thoughtful. Altogether 86 battles were
fought, extending over five years, before the natives were reduced to sue
for peace. This was granted on generous terms, which the colonists broke,
as soon as they dared to do so, in accordance with the invariable rule of
colonists, then as much as today. However, it was nigh on an hundred
years before the first college of Magic was established. Previously the
Atla had been carried about as occasion demanded. It was now enshrined
with some decency of ceremonial upon a mountain. About three hundred
years later we find ourselves face to face with the first great Mystery
of Atlas. This is a translation of the record of that most strange event.
"Now it came to pass that all men turned black and died, and that the
living Atla abode alone, bearing Mercury, whereof the Sun knoweth. Thus
came again the true men of Atlas, and their women, bearing gods and
goddesses. And the void suffered nothing, and the earth was at peace. Now
then indeed arose Art, and men builded, being blind. And there was light,
and some of the light wrought mischief. Wherefore the wise men destroyed
them with their Magic, and there is no record because it is written in
that which is." A sort of "Si" "monumentum quaeris, circumspice" seems
here implied. In any case there were clearly two gaps unbridgeable
between the early struggles of the settlers, the period of great
buildings, and the modern period, which proved stable of "houses." The
"houses" were only made possible by the perfecting of Zro, and this helps
considerably to fix the date. The next 2500 years were years of peaceable
progress; the labour-mills were run without a hitch, and the next event
was the discovery of black phophorus. It had been the custom to worship
the Atla with lights, and these lights had been candles of yellow
phosphorus in golden sheathes. At that time the Atla was veiled. At one
festival of Spring the veils were burnt up, the lights extinguished, and
the yellow phosphorus was found to have been turned into the black
powder. The Magicians examined this, and brought Zro to its ninth stage.
This revolutionized the condition of things: old age and disease were no
more, and death voluntary. Strangely enough this led directly to the
Great Conspiracy.
At the end of this period of 2500 years the system of "houses" was well
established. There were over 400 such "houses," each of perhaps 1000
souls on an average. These were governed by 4 "houses of houses" whose
rulers took orders from the High House, at the head of which was the
living Atla. The plain principle of Atla was revolution; and like all
revolutionary bodies, was obliged to adopt the strictest form of
autocracy. A democracy is always soddenly conservative. The only hope is
to catch it in one of its moments of crazy enthusiasm, and crush it
before it has time to recover. Caesar and Napoleon both did this as far
as they could: Cromwell and Porfirio Diaz did the same within narrower
limits.
Now a certain sophist --- for philosopher one cannot call him --- tried
to enunciate a magical law to the effect that the present standard of
life was all that could be desired; that further progress would be
harmful, that Venus was not worth attaining, and that the sole endeavour
of the Magicians should be to preserve things as they were. That such a
proposition could be supposed a "law" reflects no credit on its author or
its supporters. Yet of these it found many. The ninth stage of Zro was a
leap calculated to unsettle the calmest mind. Its reality had begared the
optimist's daydream. Poets had thrown down their stilettos.[26] High
Priests who had spent decades in hopeful experiment saw their results
attained by an entirely different method. In short, two thirds of the
people were infected with the heresy, and hoped to hear it promulgated as
a Law of Magic.
It should here be explained that every Law of Magic had its turn as the
principal law of practical working, and the school supporting any law, or
insisting on it, became prominent with it. Every dominant law in all
history had always been made insignificant by a new discovery about Zro,
or other matter of practical importance, just as the "Peace with Honour"
battle-cry of Disraeli was drowned by the calculation of the cost of
warships, soldiers and patriotism. Each step in Zro had consequently
implied the rise to power of a new school; and the sophist was ambitious,
and yet the law he wished to establish was the ruling law of the servile
races.
The "law" was accordingly sent to the High House for approval. Some
opposition may have been forseen, but no one was prepared for the
blackness of disapproval which actually radiated, striking hearts cold. A
course without precedent, no answer was vouchsafed. On the contrary, even
normal communication was suspended. The houses which favoured the
innovation --- 333 in numbers --- took counsel, came to the decision that
it was useless to oppose the High House, and were about to acquiesce,
when a woman who had once been in the presence of "To Her" rose and
thought vehemently "The Living Atla is the head of our conspiracy." In
other words, they were the loyalists, the Magicians of the High House the
rebels. This was why they had cut themselves off, because their own head
was against them. It was instantly resolved to go to the High House, and
demand the custody of "To Her." Nearing the goal, however, a remnant of
the ancient reverence half cowed even the ringleaders --- I may mention
that five of every six of the heretics were women --- when they saw a
stern phalanx of Magicians, its point threatening their centre. As they
wavered, a woman cried "They are only men such as we are." The ranks
stiffened; on all sides the army closed upon the tiny phalanx, which only
numbered 66 all told. It was then that the truth was known. Ere a blow
could be struck, the attacking party vanished;
[#26] Needle-sharp daggers of Zro in its seventh stage were
used to write on the rock walls of Atlas.
*************
it was instantaneous and complete annihilation. From that moment it was
certain that the ruling power in Atlas was Something[27] infinitely more
awful than the Living Atla. In order to avoid any possible repetition of
such a disaster --- for the Magicians of the High House knew that any
manifestation of the Supreme must undo the work of centuries --- they
gave out that they had become too terrible to look upon, and for the
future they always appeared with heavy veils, or rather masks, since for
the most part they were carven fantastically by the wearers in their
leisure hours. A further alteration was made in the system of government.
The head of one of the "houses of houses" was made supreme: the High
House took no part in affairs of state. Thus the Atla was to all intents
and purposes deposed, although the same reverence and sacrifice were paid
to it as formerly. It became a "constitutional monarch," in our modern
jargon.
The next thousand years were years of serious trial in other ways. The
toil of repopulation was excessive, and there was a revolt or rather
strike of the servile races, which was ended by the substitution of
"bread from heaven" for those products of the earth on which they had
formerly been fed, a diet which proved so adapted to their natures that
no labour troubles ever recurred.
The Greek legends of the wars between Gods, giants, Titans are
traditional of a real war or series of wars which continued with
intervals over 200 years. The enemy had developed naval armament to an
extreme. Their tactics were these:
1. To wipe out the servile races and so to interfere with the production
of Zro.
2. To rush and destroy the High House.
The first of these met with a great deal of success, the floating rock
being struck with projectiles and sunk. This occurred chiefly on the
outlaying islands, where they were not too much afraid to make raids in
force. They also sent epidemic disease of many kinds. Atlas was reduced
to such extremity in these ways that at one time the waterways were
forced and the assault on the High House was actually carried out,
bombardment continuing day and night for months together. Through a
misunderstanding of well known magical law, Atlanteans at that time
considered themselves prohibited from employing any other defence than
the rods and the cones of their forefathers; and these, it appears, were
useless against machinery, or against men protected by fortification in
such a way that they could not be got at from any quarter. Thus the
sharklike submarines of the enemy were unassailable. The war was
therefore at first entirely one-sided. A certain youthful Magician,
however, resolving to die for his country if need were, decided to
retaliate. He had found that Zro in its nascent state ("i.e." between the
globes) had the power of bringing about endothermic reaction, seawater
for example, becoming caustic soda and hydrochloric acid; and further
that this acid thus produced was many thousand times more active than in
its normal state. For example, the rock basins in which he conducted his
first experiment dissolved as rapidly as butter under boiling oil. He
then prepared a number of pairs of receiver-globes, and dropped them in
the vicinity of the enemy's submarines by night. In this manner he
destroyed the hulls of almost the whole fleet in a single night; and the
remainder fled in panic at dawn. They returned the following year,
carrying out daylight raids only and devoting themselves chiefly to
destroying the labour-mills. The young magician had been rewarded for his
services by being presented to the Atla, and this example encouraged
others to find means of attacking the invaders. Artificial darkness was
therefore invented, and combined with the former method; but this was
only partially successful, the tremendous pace of the "sharks" enabling
them to evade any threatening clouds. They did enormous
[#27] This matter is not for open discussion. Even at this
distant date it would be dangerous to do so much even as
indulge in speculation.
*************
damage, and the supplies of Zro were seriously curtailed. Things now went
from bad to worse, and culminated in the attack on the High House, the
besiergers keeping their battleships surrounded by rafts of fire, so that
attack was impossible even by night. It was then that the High House
called on the heorism of its sons. Armed with long swords of Zro, they
plunged into the sea, to perish under the tooth of the "Zhee-Zhou," but
not before they had time to hack the invading battleships to shreds.
Their floating torch-rafts only assisted the attack by directing the
swimmers to their quarry. The attack on the High House had aroused Atlas
at last. A counter invasion was plotted and carried out with immediate
and complete success, the enemy being exterminated, and their country not
merely ravaged but destroyed by arousing the forces of earthquake. All
activity of this kind however was deprecable, a recurrence was guarded
against by removing the High House to the lofty mountain previously
described, and a "house" was chosen to cultivate the art of war, and
entrusted with the duty of destroying any living thing that might
approach within a hundred miles of Atlas.
Only one other adventure of historical importance remains to be recorded.
It is the attempt of some foolish Atlanteans to found an "Empire," and so
to be entirely distinguished from the missionary effort referred to
previously. The original settlement of Atlas, as has been the case with
all flourishing colonies, was made by a few hardy pioneers, who
strengthened themselves gradually by growth. But Atlas in her momentary
madness poured out blood and treasure in the fatuous attempt to impose
alien domination on lands utterly unsuited to the genius of the people.
The idea, of course, was to increase the supply of labour and
consequently of crude Zro. In the first place the adventure was
expensive. It was uneconomical (in the scientific sense) to send ships
with less than 1000 fighting men. The Zro required for these meant the
employment of at least 7000 serviles, and the naval construction was
therefore of a colossal order. But although little difficulty was found
in conquering the country in the military sense, the natives had to be
almost exterminated, and the labour of the survivors proved difficult to
enforce. It was even then not a tenth as efficient as that of the
serviles at home. The imported serviles moreover caught native diseases,
and died in hundreds; and though by prodigious sacrifices the West
African Empire was kept going for nearly 200 years, it had to end at last
no less ingloriously than the French adventure in Mexico, or the English
in India, and South Africa.[28]
The main causes were the impossibility of breeding children in a climate
so unsuitable, even of maintaining their own women, and above all the
fact that the crude Zro was not of a quality equal to that obtained in
Atlas, and that the Zro generated by the Atlanteans themselves was not to
be made at all outside their own country. The lesson was learnt. Until
the end no further attempt was made to advance in any but the true
direction. The great majority of the colonists returned to Atlas; but
many, degenerating as is the fashion with colonists of this conquering
kind, abandoned Zro for gross food, intermarried with the natives, and
have generally degenerated yet further to races inferior even to the
present descendants of those who were in those days the equivalents of
the serviles of Atlas.
[#28] I write a little, but not much, in advance of the events.
To illustrate the theory here advanced I will ask the reader to
compare the results of the attempts to colonize America by (a)
the whole military power of Spain at her zenith, (b) the
handful of exiles in the "Mayflower."
*************
IX
OF THE CATASTROPHE,
ITS ANTECEDENTS AND
PRESUMED CAUSES.
In my remarks on Zro I have a necessarily somewhat diffuse account of the
properties of this remarkable substance. It must now be made clearer that
the crude Zro in its nine stages produced by the serviles, and consumed
in the "houses" was in each stage of inferior quality to that of the same
degree produced by the Atlanteans, and consumed by the High House. For
example, the crude Zro was made in a labour-mill with all sorts of
insulations. The first stage of the priest's Zro could be made anywhere
and at any time, and naturally directed itself to the receptable for it
without any precautions. It must, I think, be presumed that the Zro
generated in the High House was again of far greater purity and potency.
Very little of it can have been used in the experiments of the Magicians,
and it is therefore necessary to account for enormous quantities,
produced during many centuries of uninterrupted labour. I have, however,
no data of any kind for this investigation; the mysteries of the High
House have ever been inscrutable, and were not wholly delivered to the
Heirs of Atlas. They must be rediscovered by the Magicians of the new
race. It may be that in some form or other the Zro had been made stable,
and used to impregnate the column which is alleged to have been driven
"through the Earth"; perhaps, and less improbably, only to the depth of a
few hundred miles. This column, however long it may have been, had
certainly its top immediately beneath the reservoir of the High House. It
had been completed about 70 years before the "catastrophe" but apparently
no effort was made to utilize it in any way. To me it appears probable
that in some one mind the whole "catastrophe" was brooding, that the
column was part of the device, and that the event which I shall now
describe was the other part.
This event was the birth of a child in the High House, a child without
the distinguishing mark of the daughters of Atlas. That any child at all
should have been born there is so incredible that I am inclined to
suspect an improper use of the word "born." I think rather that a
Magician brought Zro to its eleventh stage, when it takes human form, and
lives! The alternative theory is that of the "Angel of Venus" described
in the chapter on the Underground Gardens of Atlas. The supporters of
this theory hold that the child was not born of a Priestess, but of the
Living Atla.
In any case, the whole country gave itself up to unbridled rejoicing.
Work was carried on at a greater speed than ever before: one might say a
delirium of labour. For eleven years this continued without cessation,
and then without warning came the order to repair to the High House ---
every man, woman and child of Atlas. What was then done, I know not, and
dare not guess; that same day seven volunteers, heroic exiles from the
reward of so many centuries of toil, voluntary maroons on the discarded
planet, the Heirs of Atlas, turned their faces from the High House, and
severally sought distant mountains, there each to guard his share of the
Secrets of the Holy Race, and in due time to discover and train up fit
children of other races of the Earth so that one day another people might
be founded to undertake another such task as that now ended.
Hardly had the pinnacle of Atlas melted into the sea behind them, than
the "catastrophe" occurred. The High House and the column beneath it,
with all the inhabitants of Atlas, shot from the Earth with the vehemence
of a million lightnings, bound for that green blaze of glory that
scintillated in the West above the sunset.
Instantly the Earth, its god departed, gave itself up to anguish. The sea
rushed unto the void of the column and in a thousand earthquakes Atlas,
"houses" and plains together were overwhelmed forever in the ocean. Tidal
waves rolled round the world; everywhere great floods carried away
villages and towns; earthquakes roocked and tempest roared; tumult was
triumphant. For years after the catastrophe the dying tremors of the
Event still shook mankind with fear.[29] And the eternal waves of the
great mother rolled over Atlas, save where Earth in her agony thrust up
gaunt pinnacles, bare masts of wreckage to mark the vanished continent.
Save for its heirs, of whose successors it is my highest honour to be the
youngest and the least worthy, oblivion fell, like one last night in
which the Sun should be forever extinct, upon the land of Atlas and its
people.
Shall such high purpose fail of emulation, such achievement and example
not excite us to like striving? Then let Earth fall indeed from her high
place in heaven, and mankind be outcast forever from the Sun! Men of
Earth! Seek out the heirs of Atlas; let them order you into a phalanx,
let them build you into a pyramid; that may pierce that appointed which
awaits you, to establish a new dynasty of Atlanteans to be the mainstay
and mainspring of the Earth, the pioneers of their own path to heaven,
and to our lord and Father, the Sun! And he put his hand upon his thigh,
and swore it.
By the ineffable " ," "Tla," and the holy Zro, did he swear it, and
entered into the body of the new Atla that is alive upon the Earth.
[#29] The Legend of the Deluge is derived from this event.
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