Earth's Creation and Destruction

The Flat Earth theory is currently gaining credence and Albert Michelson's experiment of 1887 proved it is a stationary plane. This has not been disproved. It occurred to me while contemplating the World's immense oceans on this model, surrounding the continents, that what we are actually seeing is the Deucalion Flood, it is still here. The waters have receded from their previous height, but not to their prior level and there is evidence of lost civilizations which are still submerged. The continents themselves appear as though they were once part of a uniform landmass before the inundation separated them.

By Providence, I came across a 17th Century hypothesis by Thomas Burnet which confirmed my supposition. Burnet's proposal, which he dedicated to King William III, was entitled: 'The Sacred Theory of the Earth' and was "writ with a sincere intention to justifie the Doctrines of the Universal Deluge, and of a Paradisiacal state, and protect them from the Cavils of those that are no well-wishers to Sacred History." He pieced together pertinent verse from Biblical scriptures to describe the Earth's creation from Chaos to Paradise and it's dissolution.

The question arose from trying to account for the volume of water required to drown the entire Earth in Noah's flood, which Burnet estimated at about eight oceans. He asserts it could not have risen up from the 'Fountains of the Deep' without leaving these subterraneous chambers empty, or fallen in sufficient quantity as rain from the sky, or descended from the 'Floodgates of Heaven.' Burnet claimed that the Antediluvian World was of a different construction from the current one, which is built upon the ruins of the former, which was created perfectly smooth and regular, with neither mountains, valleys nor seas. An unblemished paradise that was always in the spring season, with rivers flowing from the poles to the Equator

His exposition is as follows: In the beginning the Earth was without form and void, (called Nun by Egyptians) and Burnet says that this "fluid, dark, confus’d mass, was without distinction of Elements; made up of all variety of parts, but without Order, or any determinate Form; which is the true description of a Chaos." He surmised that eventually all these particles divided accordingly by their properties into oily liquors which eventually solidified and the airs which fill the vault of Heaven. The denser matter formed a smooth crust over the abyss.

Burnet theorised that this original uniform landmass was cloven asunder in a violent upheaval and sank down into the abyss, upon which it was founded, causing the waters below to engulf the whole World. Simultaneously, the floor of the Earth was contorted into mountain ranges, hills and valleys, with rocks strewn all around, while inside, hollows, dens, arches and cavernous tunnels appeared, some filled with water, some with air and vapours. This commotion has not yet settled as demonstrated by the frequency of volcanoes and earthquakes.

It should be noted that this theory is post-Copernicus and so when Burnet refers to the "convexity of the Earth" in his treatise, he means the globe, but like his contemporary, the Astronomer Royal, Sir Edmund Halley, he proposed that the Earth is hollow. No provision is made on the conventional globular model for vast reservoirs of waters below the Earth's crust. On the contrary, it is said to be comprised of solid rock which extreme temperatures cause to become molten and the heat intensifies until it reaches the furnace at it's core. Water would evaporate under such conditions.

Thomas Burnet summarises the course of events...

"Thus a new World appear’d, or the Earth put on its new form, and became divided into Sea and Land; and the Abysse, which from several Ages, even from the beginning of the World, had lain hid in the womb of the Earth, was brought to light and discover’d; the greatest part of it constituting our present Ocean, and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth: Upon the Land appear’d the Mountains and the Hills, and the Islands in the Sea, and the Rocks upon the shore. And so the Divine Providence, having prepar’d Nature for so great a change, at one stroke dissolv’d the frame of the old World, and made us a new one out of its ruines, which we now inhabit since the Deluge."

The coastlines, he observed are rugged and irregular, accompanied by clusters of islands, severed from the mainland by channels of sea. Others are sandy and level with the ocean, but in 1690 what lay beneath the seas was beyond his comprehension. He wrote; "...in the search of the deep? Or who can make a description of that which none hath seen?" Burnet presumed it had "all the common inequalities we see upon Land; besides these, ’tis very likely there are Caves under water, and hollow passages into the bowels of the Earth." Today, we can confirm he was partially correct, there are indeed bottomless trenches and mountainous ridges, but 50% of the ocean floor is Abyssal Plain, which are the flattest and smoothest regions on Earth.

This would attest to Burnet's concept of the Earth's original composition, as flat as a pancake! "Plain as the Elysian fields; if you travel it all over, you will not meet with a Mountain or a Rock, yet well provided of all things requisite for an habitable World..." It seems half of this smooth surface area remained intact when the land sunk into the abyss. What is visible above the retreating deluge, Burnet called "a ruine" which is our World; but it's permanence is not guaranteed either, because "the present Heavens and Earth have another constitution, whereby in like manner they are expos’d, in God's due time, to be consum’d or dissolv’d by Fire."

He proceeds to give an account of the Earth's environment when it was in it's paradisaical state and presents the evidence as to why in it's current condition it has the components to be consumed by conflagration in the future, but I will let the reader discover that for themselves, if they have the interest. Thomas Burnet laments: "The truth is, the generality of people have not sence and curiosity enough to raise a question concerning these things, or concerning the Original of them, so much is the World drown’d in stupidity and sensual pleasures, and so little inquisitive into the works of God and Nature." Some things never change! 

                               

Concerning the DELUGE and Concerning PARADISE

by 

Thomas Burnet

 

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - (Hamlet.)

Operation Highjump (Over the Ice Wall)

In 1948 an Oscar winning documentary entitled 'The Secret Land' was released in the United States covering the Antarctic Developments Project of 1946-47, immediately after the end of WWII, codenamed 'Operation Highjump.' The official purpose of this hastily prepared military contingent destined for the Antarctic rim, led by veteran explorer Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, was to map the coastline and as much of the interior as possible; to train personnel and test materials in frigid conditions; conduct various scientific tests and establish permanent bases. Captain James Cook achieved much of this in 1773 sailing a small merchant collier!

With Rear Admiral Richard Cruzen heading up the task force of 4,700 men, a fleet of thirteen ships, including a destroyer, a submarine, ice-breakers, cargo ships and the newly built fleet aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea with six R4D transport planes on board, fanned out as they left Panama to sail the many hundreds of miles south. They also carried tractors, snow-ploughs, tanks, sea-planes, helicopters and several dog-sled teams. No expense was spared in this time of post-war austerity, but America did not make any territorial claims or exploit Antarctica's rich supply of untapped natural resources after this expedition.

Indeed, the greatest achievement of this costly and perilous operation in which many men died, was the acquisition of approximately 70,000 aerial photographs of the Antarctic coast and other inland areas. Or at least, so we are told... but Admiral Richard Byrd alluded to an unexplored "land of everlasting mystery" a real "no-man's land" which was as large as North America and has never been seen by a human being. When Captain Cook reached the furthest south he could go he noted: the ice "extended east and west far beyond the reach of our sight, while the southern half of the horizon was illuminated by rays of light which were reflected from the ice to a considerable height... It was indeed my opinion that this ice extends quite to the Pole, or perhaps joins to some land to which it has been fixed since creation".

In February 1947 Byrd was quoted as saying, "I'd like to see the land beyond the Pole. That area beyond the Pole is the center of the Great Unknown..." What this polar pioneer and his crew actually did see on their 'high-jump' over the Antarctic ice-wall has been classified ever since. On a routine mission to map 300 miles of coast off Queen Maud Land in their PBM, pilots W.R.Kreitzer and F.L.Reinbolt observed that what was previously drawn in as coastline was in fact a towering ice-shelf rising high above the sea. Turning south, they suddenly discovered a range of ice-crystal mountains, rising more than 2 miles into the air. Flying near the mountain peaks, Kreitzer and Reinbolt followed the range for almost 100 miles. One of them later told Byrd, "It was like a landscape on another planet."

Admiral Cruzen spoke of several "oasis" with ice-free land and warm water. Lieutenant Commander David Bunger and his men flew west from the Queen Mary Coast where they were amazed to see "a land of blue and green lakes and brown hills in an otherwise limitless expanse of ice." They landed their 'flying boat' on a lake and tested the water, which was about 30 degrees. On a previous 1,700 mile flight across the South Pole Admiral Byrd was perplexed by the lack of snow and ice. He saw vegetation and pine forests, warm winds and land animals ahead. However, all his transmission data was sealed and he was obliged to remain silent.

As a high-ranking Freemason and member of the Air Force, Admiral Byrd had to keep his oath of secrecy. He was also from an 'elite' bloodline and all of his earlier polar fights and explorations were funded by John D. Rockefeller and his 'philanthropic' cohorts. Byrd named an Antarctic mountain range after this evil man! Much to the dismay of the other expedition members, all of the scientific information gathered by the team on Byrd’s First Antarctic Expedition from 1928–1930, which was “enough to fill seven large books” was turned over to Rockefeller before anybody had a chance to study the findings, only to vanish and never be seen again.

In preparation for Byrd's Antarctic Service Expedition in 1939, a unique Snow Cruiser called 'Penguin 1' was loaded onto the North Star vessel amidst much fanfare. This fully equipped monster-truck was 16 feet high and 55 feet long, it's wheels were 10 feet in diameter and retractable for passing over crevasses and gliding down slopes. It had a small monoplane with skis, designed to be carried on the roof with a range of 300 miles and the cruiser was intended to accommodate five people with enough fuel and supplies for a year. They planned to go far in this vehicle! Unfortunately, this 'white elephant' which cost $300,000, an exorbitant sum, went nowhere. It's treadless tires proved useless on ice and it was abandoned where it lay for posterity.

The Germans invited Admiral Byrd to lecture them on his polar expeditions in 1938, before they embarked on their own from Hamburg, with Germany's top scientists aboard the research ship 'Schwabenland.' Their aim was to investigate sites for a possible Antarctic base and to make formal claims in the name of the Third Reich. It is believed that they established an underground base in Neuschwabenland and continued to develop their 'vimanans' using 'vril' technology, which as members of the secretive Thule Society, the Nazi hierarchy were quite familiar with. It's rumoured that Hitler was ensconced there after the war ended.

In 1945, Britain encountered a convoy of German U-boats fleeing Norway and suspected of heading for Antarctica with the German High Command. All Royal Navy subs and warships in the Atlantic were pressed into service, but the British flotilla was totally wiped out except for one destroyer, the Captain of which said, "May God help me, may I never again encounter such a force!" This final battle was not publicised. Nonetheless, after this sham war, many Nazi scientists were recruited by the United States in Henry Kissinger's 'Operation Paperclip' to initiate the NASA Space Program in 1958, so they could hardly be the 'enemy' they were claimed to be in wartime. Didn't the Nazi's murder six million of Kissinger's tribe?

Neither in the 1939-1941, or subsequent 1946 and 1955 expeditions to Antarctica did the United States appear to infringe upon the lands claimed by the Germans, but 'Operation Highjump' which was and still is, the largest Antarctic expedition in history came to an abrupt halt with the sudden evacuation of Little America IV, six months before schedule and Admiral Byrd told a press conference that Antarctica should be surrounded by a wall of defense installations as it represented the last line of defense against "hostile regions." He was also in favour of testing nuclear and atom bombs there! Why would he advocate nuking "that enchanted continent in the sky" with which he was so enamoured?
 

However, at the start of  'Operation Highjump' when the six R4D's took off in unison across Antarctica, all the planes returned on time apart from Admiral Byrd's, he arrived three hours later... This was accounted for by engine failure which caused them to lose altitude and they had to jettison their equipment to lighten the load and limp home to base camp. I suspect that whatever occurred during that mission and those missing hours, was the real reason behind the aborted Antarctic Developments Project. Oddly, a PBM Mariner, 'George 1' exploded in a fireball over Thurston Island, killing three men! Some suggest the US forces were engaged by advanced German weapons systems from their covert undersea base, others claim that they were warned off by the Aryan 'superhumans' from a subterranean realm in their 'flying discs.'

Admiral Byrd's final incursion into the 'land of everlasting mystery' came during 'Operation Deepfreeze' in 1955-1956, but he stayed for just one week and died a year later, rather prematurely at sixty-eight years of age. 1957 was the International Geophysical Year and when the Antarctic Treaty came into effect making the territory off-limits to all but the military. This treaty was signed by twelve countries in 1959, the year rocket scientist Werner Von Braun stated: "We find ourselves faced by powers which are far stronger than we had hitherto assumed and whose base of operations is presently unknown to us." As a former Nazi SS Officer, to whom was he referring?

Curiously, Richard E. Byrd's only son of the same name, a Harvard graduate who was a financier at Morgan Stanley and accompanied his father on 'Operation Highjump.' also died in strange circumstances at sixty-eight years old. He went missing on his way from Boston to a National Geographic Society ceremony in Washington in honour of Admiral Byrd's centenary. He never arrived and his body was found almost a month later in a disused warehouse in Baltimore. It seems that the true story of the 'land beyond the pole' died with it's discoverer, thus ensuring Antarctica forever remains... "The Secret Land."

Telegeodynamics

Two devastating earthquakes in the month of September 1999 again focused the world's attention on one of nature's most terrifying and destructive forces. Earthquakes in Turkey and Taiwan took the lives of thousands and left even more people homeless and in fear of returning to their devastated communities.

The death and devastation caused by major earthquakes around the world can only worsen in years to come, as growing urban development and unprecedented population growth compound the lethal effects of natural and, as some researchers claim, man-made seismic hazards. With the world's population estimated to pass the 6 billion mark this year, there are fewer unpopulated places for quakes to strike.

And with ever more people to accommodate, there is more multistoried construction in vulnerable fault zones. As a result, destructive earthquakes "are the wave of the future," seismic expert Kerry Sieh of the California Institute of Technology says. "There are 40 cities of a million or more people within 100 kilometres of a major plate boundary, and all those are good candidates for a large event."

What Are Earthquakes? Most people consider earthquakes to be natural in origin, but what if there was such a thing as man-made earthquakes?

Well, there are. There is the official version of what constitutes a man-made earthquake, and then there is a body of suppressed research pointing to a more insidious agenda.

Artificially-Induced Earthquakes

Officially, there is such an area of research devoted to man-made earthquakes. Geologists and seismologists agree that humans can induce earthquakes in five major ways: fluid injection into the Earth, (fracking) fluid extraction from the Earth, mining or quarrying, nuclear testing and through the construction of dams and reservoirs.

In fact, there are officially recorded instances of earthquakes caused by human activity.

Geologists discovered that disposal of waste fluids by means of injecting them deep into the earth could trigger earthquakes after a series of earthquakes in the Denver area occurred from 1962-1965; the periods and amounts of injected waste coincided with the frequency and magnitude of earthquakes in the Denver area. The earthquakes were triggered because the liquid, which was injected under very high pressure, released stored strain energy in the rocks.

Man-made earthquakes may seem like something out of the X-Files, and it's probably only a matter of time before the idea is picked up by Hollywood. This year, best-selling thriller author Ken Follett released his latest book, Hammer of Eden, about a terrorist group threatening to level San Francisco with a man-made earthquake. When asked by Salon Magazine how real is the idea of a man-made earthquake, Follett replied that "Some of the seismologists told me, 'There's no way this could happen.' But others gave sad little shrugs and said, 'It's hard to say. Who knows? Maybe. It's within the realm of possibly.'"

Suppressed Research: Tesla Technologies

Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Nicola Tesla is one of this century's greatest scientists. A prodigious inventor of electronic devices and pioneer of free energy, Tesla never gained the recognition he deserved because his scientific breakthroughs were deemed to 'sensitive' by the ruling corporate and government powers of the day. Thus much of his research was suppressed and stolen.

In a book entitled Tesla - The Lost Inventions, a section is titled "Man-Made Earthquake". It discloses Tesla's fascination with the power of resonance and he experimented with it not only electrically but on the mechanical plane as well. In his Manhattan, USA lab, Tesla built mechanical vibrators and tested their powers. One experiment got out of hand.

Tesla attached a powerful little vibrator driven by compressed air to a steel pillar. Leaving it there, he went about his business. Meanwhile, down the street, a violent quaking built up, shaking down plaster, bursting plumbing, cracking windows, and breaking heavy machinery off its anchorages.

Tesla's vibrator had found the resonant frequency of a deep sandy layer of subsoil beneath his building, setting off a small earthquake. Soon Tesla's own building began to quake. It is reported that just as the police broke into his lab, Tesla was seen smashing the device with a sledge hammer, the only way he could promptly stop it.

In a similar experiment, on an evening walk through the city, Tesla attached a battery powered vibrator, described as being the size of an alarm clock, to the steel framework of a building under construction. He adjusted it to a suitable frequency and set the structure into resonant vibration.

The structure shook, and so did the earth under his feet. Tesla later boasted he could shake down the Empire State Building with such a device. (The Twin Towers?) If this claim was not extravagant enough, he went on to say a large-scale resonant vibration was capable of splitting the earth in half.

An article from the 11 July, 1935 issue of the New York American entitled 'Tesla's Controlled Earthquakes', stated Tesla's "experiments in transmitting mechanical vibrations through the earth - called by him 'the art of telegeodynamics' - were roughly described by the scientists as a sort of controlled earthquake."

The article quotes Tesla as stating:

"The rhythmical vibrations pass through the earth with almost no loss of energy. It becomes possible to convey mechanical effects to the greatest terrestrial distances and produce all kinds of unique effects. The invention could be used with destructive effect in war."

Mysterious Lights

Several UFO researchers speculate many UFO sightings might actually be "earthquake lights" caused by 'piezoelectric' phenomena. Piezoelectricity is believed to be caused by crystals found in certain rocks giving off a flow of electricity when subjected to high pressure, as in an earthquake. Lights leaping away from mountain peaks have been seen and recorded since ancient times.

Reports coming out of Turkey during the recent 17th August earthquake mention mysterious lights over the west of the country. The following intriguing eyewitness report was forwarded to Mutual UFO Network Eastern USA from Turkey:

"They are incredibly clear, circular or triangular in shape, white, yellow, red and blue coloured, remain visible in the sky for 5 to 20 minutes, following a materialising-dematerialising pattern. The funny thing is it became a routine thing as they have been showing up two or three times a week. They became an inevitable component of the TV news and media.

Furthermore, just before the quake, the bottom of the sea in Izmit went red and the sea temperature went up to 40-45 degrees C. However, there are no underwater volcanoes in the Sea of Marmara! Starting two days before the quake, hundreds of fish, crabs and other sea life forms died and not naturally! Somehow, they were burned! The fish nets of the fishermen were burned and we have several rock and stone samples from the sea, which went black in colour. TUVPO (Turkish UFO and Paranormal Organisation) is cooperating with the Smithsonian Institute and a few universities in the US. We already sent them some rock and burned fishnet samples, upon their request. Folks at TUVPO will hopefully run a spectrum analysis on the video tapes. Some fishermen are also saying that they witnessed an explosion under the sea. Fireballs, strange lights, sightings never ended in Turkey.

Compare this information with what happened in the destructive 1977 earthquake that hit China. The 5th June, 1977 New York Times described the great earthquake which destroyed Tangshan, China on July 28, 1976, killing over 650,000 people:

Just before the first tremor at 3:42 am, the sky lit up like daylight. The multi-hued lights, mainly white and red, were seen up to 200 miles away. Leaves on many trees were burned to a crisp and growing vegetables were scorched on one side, as if by a fireball.

Tesla Effect

Some investigators believe these electrical effects were associated with electromagnetic plasma and ball lightning and the strange array of flashes that result from Tesla-style technology. Was this brilliant flash of coloured light what Tesla talked about in 1935 when he mentioned "all kinds of unique effects"? Was this earthquake an early test of the system, conducted on the unsuspecting people of China? It certainly does not appear it was a natural earthquake. Was the same technology tried out on Turkey?

The January 1978 edition of Specula magazine ran an article describing an incredibly profound phenomenon that could be produced within the Earth by what is called the 'Tesla Effect.' According to the article, electromagnetic signals of certain frequencies can be transmitted through the Earth to form standing waves in the Earth itself. In certain cases, coherence to this standing wave can be induced wherein a fraction of the vast, surging electromagnetic current of the Earth itself feeds into and augments the induced standing wave. In other words, "much more energy is now present in the standing wave than the ...amount being fed in from the Earth's surface." By interferometer techniques, giant standing waves can be combined to produce a focused beam of very great energy. This can then be used to produce earthquakes induced at distant aiming points.

Tesla expressed grave concerns about the effects of this technology because it is exactly the type of thing that could easily get out of control once it begins vibrating within the Earth - and it could actually cause the Earth to vibrate to pieces. Could the use of this technique have been responsible for the great earthquake in Tangshan, China in 1976?

Another leading Tesla researcher and nuclear engineer, Lt. Col. Thomas Bearden, lecturing at a Symposium of the US Psychotronics Association (USPA) in 1981 stated:

Tesla found that he could set up standing waves. in the earth or, just set it up through the rocks - the telluric activity in the rocks would furnish activity into these waves and one would get more potential energy in those waves than he put in. He called the concept the Tesla Magnifying Transmitter (TMT).

Bearden goes on to explain how TMTs worked:

They will go through anything. What you do is that you set up a standing wave through the earth and the molten core of the earth begins to feed that wave (we are talking Tesla now). When you have that standing wave, you have set up a triode.

What you've done is that the molten core of the earth is feeding the energy and it's like your signal - that you are putting in - is gating the grid of a triode. Then what you do is that you change the frequency. If you change the frequency one way (start to dephase it), you dump the energy up in the atmosphere beyond the point on the other side of the earth that you focused upon. You start ionising the air, you can change the weather flow patterns (jet streams etc) - you can change all that - if you dump it gradually, real gradually - you influence the heck out of the weather. It's a great weather machine. If you dump it sharply, you don't get little ionisation like that. You will get flashes and fireballs (plasma) that will come down on the surfaces of the earth. you can cause enormous weather changes over entire regions by playing that thing back and forth.

HAARP: The Pentagon's Ultimate Weapon

In an Arctic compound 450 kilometres east of Anchorage, Alaska, the Pentagon has erected a powerful transmitter designed to beam more than a gigawatt of energy into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Known as Project HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program), the $30 million experiment involves the world's largest "ionospheric heater," a prototype device designed to zap the skies hundreds of kilometres above the earth with high-frequency radio waves.

Why irradiate the charged particles of the ionosphere (which when energised by natural processes make up the lovely and famous phenomenon known as the Northern Lights)?

According to the US Navy and Air Force, co-sponsors of the project, "to observe the complex natural variations of Alaska's ionosphere." As well, admit the Pentagon, to develop new forms of communications and surveillance technologies to enable the military to send signals to nuclear submarines and to peer deep underground.

Jason Jeffrey (Extract from New Dawn No. 57, Nov-Dec.1999)   

Since Kobe in Japan was struck in 1995 by a massive earthquake, there have been further devastating earthquakes from Pakistan to Peru. The Bam earthquake in Iran reduced it's ancient citadel to a heap of rubble on Boxing Day 2003 and exactly one year later, a mega-tsunami ripped across the Indian Ocean causing major loss of life and destruction. More recently, there were crippling earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.

Nations have also developed techniques to manipulate the weather. Weather modification can be divided into two main categories: suppression and intensification of weather patterns. In extreme cases, it might involve the creation of completely new weather patterns, attenuation or control of severe storms, or even alteration of the world's climate on a far-reaching and/or long-lasting scale. In the mildest and least controversial cases it may consist of inducing or suppressing precipitation, clouds, or fog for short times over a region.

The countries earmarked by Henry Kissinger for his “special treatment” are first destabilized by ‘natural disasters’ to weaken resistance before military intervention and occupation, but vast armies are no longer needed. Perfected weather control technology will enable an aggressor to withhold rain and create drought, induce forest fires, create floods or tsunami’s and hurricanes, withhold sunshine, damage food crops, and bring any country to its knees without firing a single shot. There is no such thing as 'Global Warming!'

Underworld Mythology

If I have told you earthly things,
and ye believe not,
how shall ye believe,
if I tell you of heavenly things?

(St.John,3,12)

Introduction

In the beginning when man was created upon the Earth, it was a garden paradise under the watchful eye of God. This period was a Golden Age  ... until, a rebellious angel led us to a fall from grace and we lost the innocence of Eden. After this descent, "the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them." These mighty men of old created a new, materialistic civilization and prosperous, powerful empires flourished. The good gods looked on, interceding whenever possible to assist mankind through what had become a tortuous existence.

As the aeons past, earthlings forgot their divine heritage, became spiritually arrogant and greed and avarice consumed them. The Atlantean race embarked on a conquest to colonise more lands, inflicting slavery and tyranny, until they met a formidable adversary in the brave Athenians. From beneath Poseidon caused the Earth to quake during this epic battle; 'and seized with fear in the world below was Aidoneus, lord of the shades... lest above him the earth be cloven by Poseidon, the Shaker of the Earth, and his abode be made plain to view for mortals and immortals... so great was the din that arose when the gods clashed in strife.'

The victorious men of Athens saved themselves from subjugation and liberated others. But Zeus the lawgiver and supreme god of shining Mount Olympus, wishing to purge the Earth of this wretchedness; 'collected all the gods into his most Holy habitation, which being placed in the center of the World, sees all things that partake of generations'.

After the gods had convened, Zeus inflicted a severe punishment on the warmongers. He unleashed a mighty thunderbolt and in a single day and night of torrential rain, earthquakes and tidal waves, a deluge engulfed the lands and mankind was virtually annihilated! When the waters receded the continents were unrecognisable, where there had been land there was now sea and seas, desert and once fertile fields were swamped. The Atlantic was no longer navigable and the few, scattered survivors were isolated.

People had been reduced to a rudimentary lifestyle, amongst the ruins of their once resplendent cities, but they each retained some memories of their lost heritage and their history and cosmogony became our 'myths.' Many cultures, supposed to have developed independently of each other on opposite sides of the world had counterpart heroes, and deities corresponding to nature's elements, only their names were different and this universal pantheon dramatised similar stories, including floods.

Noah, like Utnapishtim, prepared an ark, while Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha were cast adrift in a chest for nine days and nine nights, until it landed on Mount Parnassus. There the couple made a sacrifice to Zeus and begged him to replenish the Earth with people. All mythologies also refer to an underworld, the domain of the gods, (where mortals sometimes ventured) which scholars presume to be an imaginary location but it was clearly portrayed as a geographical region, with access in specific areas.

How could so many diverse races, deemed to have no prior contact, conceive of a separate realm below the Earth... unless of course, it was real? The entrances to the subterranean world were on the banks of the Ocean and at the edge of the circle of the Ocean, there were also crevices and openings in the floor of the Earth... 
 
Khemet

Egyptians called it the Halls of Amenti, or Duat, the land of the dead and it was a place where souls were judged in the Afterlife, by Osiris, the god of renewed life, represented by the imperial dragon. Described as a valley, bordered by mountains with a river harbouring serpents and demons, it had secret gateways in the east and west, guarded by sphinx. In the papyrus of Nebseni, (The Book of the Dead) it was shown with a canal, at the end of which is a boat, containing a flight of seven steps, the symbol of ascent.

It was also the source of the Nile, as the visionary Akhenaten's hymn to Aten declared: 'It is in the underworld that you make the Nile. And bring it forth at your will. So that mankind might live.' The spirit of Osiris, rose up yearly with the life-giving inundation from three fountains at the Equator.

The underworld is identified as the course of the sun through the twelve hours of the night. In the Book of Pylons souls hoped to journey in the merjet boat ('the barque of millions of years') of Ra, or Khephri, whose sacred emblem is the scarab beetle, placed over the heart of a mummy and inscribed with a phoenix and verse from the Book of the Dead to guide the deceased in the Afterlife... as they sailed on the river Duat. Spells from the Book of Pylons (gates) allowed the soul to go through the portals of Osiris and there, with his protection they could pass the guardian monsters on the path.

So it is Osiris, accompanied by Horus, to whom the hawk is sacred and Anubis, the jackal headed deity, who the ka (the dead's double) meets in the Judgement Hall of Death where the heart is weighed against a feather, watched over by Thoth, represented by an ibis. The ka divided into two when the mortal body died and became the ba (the soul) and the akh (the spirit.) The akh took the form of a human-headed bird and flew to the underworld, where it could stay if it knew the correct procedures to follow, while the ba remained in the tomb, furnished with all it would require for a happy stay.

For Egyptian mortals, the Pharaoh was the channel to the Afterlife from which he was 'resurrected', rejuvenated and god-like during rituals at the Heb Sed Festival. The incantations of this ceremony are contained in the oldest known records on Earth, the pyramid texts at Saqqara. The main purpose of the spells in the hieroglyphics (the god's words) was to enable the King to gain admittance to the otherworld beyond the 'Lily Lake' in the east. There lies 'the fields where the gods were begotten,' Sekhet Hetepet (the original Elysian Fields) also known as Punt...the celestial paradise.

The text reads; 'thou art gone alive to sit on the throne of Osiris. Re-Atum does not give thee to Osiris'. The text is adamant that King Unas is not dead... but alive in the underworld. Unas takes his seat on the horizon: 'The doors of the horizon open themselves, it's bolts slide… He comest to thee, O his father… Mayest thou grant that this Unas seize the Cool Region… standest over the places of the primeval ocean… thou risest with the father Atum. Thou goest up and openest thy way through the bones of Shu, [the air] the embrace of thy mother Nut [the sky] enfolds thee.'

Nut the sky goddess was spangled with stars, she had two suns, one near her mouth and one at her womb. The Valley of Duat was in the body of Nut. In a union with her brother Geb, the earth god, she produced Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. Together with Nut and Geb's parents, Shu and Tefnut, and their father, Ra, they made up the nine original deities of the Ennead; and the gods wrapped in their white garments were always waiting to welcome the King at the lakeside,''Our heart was not glad till thy coming,'' they say.

Belief in an Afterlife, which is an extension of previous lives and goes on and on ad infinitum... was the crux of Egyptian ideology and permeated the traditions of the living. Even animals were deemed sacred and honoured with embalming and mummification after death. The Apis-bull, inhabited by the soul of Osiris, was deified and entombed eternally in subterranean catacombs at Saqqara, where millions of preserved animals were found in niches along passages which extended for several kilometers below ground. Cats, birds and baboons (sacred to Osiris) were thought to convey messages to the gods and provide company in the Hereafter.   

However, the spirit can only enjoy peace and contentment in the underworld with the gods, as long as the soul remained undisturbed in the tomb. Much care was taken to secrete the burial chambers deep in the rock, for if the mummy should be destroyed, the ba and akh would become homeless, and die a much feared second death. That is why pyramids, looming above the desert sands, can not be the tombs of Kings.   
 
Greece

In Greece, the netherworld called Hades, meaning unseen, was also the realm of the dead, which was well mapped as a mirror image of the outer world (as above, so below.) It had plains and mountains with deep cave systems but so far beneath the surface, an object dropped would take nine days to land. Reached by the River Styx, after paying Charon the ferryman, it was divided into the regions of Erebus and Tartarus, where Minos and his brother Rhadamanthus were judges.

Those who had been good and virtuous were destined to remain in Elysium, a land of bliss and perpetual sunshine with gold, mineral riches and treasures guarded by griffins. There was the Asphodel Fields where the souls of men remained in limbo or became birds and the Punishment Fields, where it was the destiny of evildoers to endure damnation, scourged by the Furies in the darkness of Tartarus, the deeper part where no light shines and all waters originate. All rivers flow into the chasm of Tartarus and flow out of it again. The worst offenders were those who had sinned against the gods themselves, with the greatest crime of all being abuse of the gods' hospitality.

Odysseus, the hero, on his return voyage from the Trojan war, sailed on the current of Oceanus to the 'house of the dead,' at the boundary of Earth to speak with the ghost of his departed mother, and that of Tiresius and Lord Agamemnon. When he passed by the isle of the bewitching Sirens, who would entice him into the abyss, Odysseus plugged the ears of his men and was tied to the mast to hear their sweet singing, without plunging to a watery grave.


At the confluence of the deep Acheron and the river Styx in the land of the dark Cimmerians, hidden in vapour and cloud, Odysseus had discourse with the ghost of Tiresias by necromancy. He invoked the dead by digging a pit, into which flowed the blood of an unblemished black ram. A black sheep was sacrificed in honour of Zeus, Hades and Gaea, the primeval prophetess and source of the vapours which influence the seer.

The dead of Erebus flocked to the pit and Odysseus kept them at bay with his sword until he had spoken to the seer Tiresias, who drank of the blood, before he prophesied. Tiresias spake; ''For whomso of all these spirits departed on earth, Thou sufferest to drink of the blood, he will tell thee the truth, But whomso thou grudgest will silent return to his place.'' So saying, the spirit of Lord Tiresias tells Odysseus the way home and then 'enter'd the mansions of Hades, his oracles told.' Acheron is also the name of a river in modern Greece, still reputed to give access Hades.

Orpheus, the celebrated poet and musician, saved his companions on the Argonautic expedition from yielding to the Sirens, by playing magical music on his golden lyre. Taught by his muse-mother Calliope, the dulcet tones of the minstrel could calm the waves and send dragons to sleep. But Orpheus, in his inconsolable grief at the death of his lover Eurydice, pleaded with Zeus for permission to visit the underworld and beg for her release. The rulers of the lower-world, seduced by the ravishing music of Orpheus, restored Eurydice to life and allowed her to follow him home, on the condition that Orpheus did not look back until they had reached the land of the living. Orpheus could not resist and turned his head to see his lovely wife... Eurydice uttered a cry and vanished forever from his sight, to the world below.

Persephone, the Queen of the underworld, was bound to marry Hades (Aidoneus) after eating pomegranate and she was destined to spend one third of the year there. Hades rose up in his chariot through a great fissure in the earth to abduct Persephone, when she was gathering flowers in a meadow one day. The crops withered until Persephone returned to the upper-world in the spring. As Pluto, the Prince of the underworld, (entered through a cave near Naples) was a giver of wealth and all good food, like corn, came from the depths of his domain, which contained treasures as well as the souls of the dead.

A subterraneous tunnel was said to stretch from Arcadia in Greece, to Naples and was frequented by unhappy lovers. Within it, Pan, the sensual satyr chased nymphs, while delightful shepherdesses collected water from a crystal fountain and tended their gentle flocks. Colourful butterflies, solicitous honey bees and turtle doves flew amongst fragrant herbaceous plants. The Alcyonian Lake in the swamps of Lerna, in which Heracles fought the Hydra, was used as a portal to Hades by the wine-god Dionysus when he rescued his mother Semele from the underworld. The heroine asked her illicit lover Zeus to reveal to her his true nature as storm god and was burned up by the awful glow of that revelation. To retrieve Semele from the nether regions, Dionysus went to Lerna and dived into the bottomless lake.   
 
Mesoamerica

Legends of the nether regions abound, but especially in Mesoamerica, the unmarked polar “dark region” symbolizing death and the underworld, around which everything was observed to revolve. Quetzalcoatl was the sun god or 'Plumed Serpent' and Lord of Tula, the Toltec Capital City which is inter-changeable with Meru, “the place of peace, a real place, open to those of pure heart,” at the Navel of Earth.   
 
 The ‘Feathered Serpent’ reigned over a time of peace and plenty until he was defeated by Tezcatlipoca, (his dark side) god of night and the rain of the north, together they manifest cosmic polarity, like Sammael the fallen angel and the archangel Michael, who fought with his angels against the dragon. 'And the great dragon was cast out; that old serpent, called the Devil' (Revelation 12,9.)

Quetzalcoatl was the one cast out after his moral downfall, and expelled from Tula. He wandered over the face of the Earth, represented with a beard and wearing long white robes and carrying a staff, and he wore the solar disk, a prominent motif in ancient Egypt. The ubiquitous Quetzalcoatl (Kukulkan, to the Maya) was endowed with the same civilizing qualities as Thoth, (Hermes) who also wore the winged, solar disk.

He was warmly welcomed wherever he went but when he reached the netherlands in the east, at the edge of the sea, from whence everyone had come, Quetzalcoatl was 'self-immolated' and arose like a phoenix to become the Evening Star (Venus, a symbol of love.) It was believed that the Toltecs came from an undisclosed island, in ancient times. The sacred Codices also describe a deluge in which a man called Coxcoxtli and a woman, Xochiquetzal survived and found safety on Mount Colhuacan, but the aftermath of this event was a confusion of ‘tongues.’

Tezcatlipoca had only one leg, having lost the other when the gates of Mictlan, the lower world, were shut on him in haste, he replaced Quetzalcoatl as the principal deity of the Aztecs, who feared him greatly. The Aztecs chose the most handsome captive for the blood sacrifice to Tezcatlipoca. The still beating heart of the victim, in the persona of the god, was the offering, ritually removed by an obsidian knife.

Some scholars, who investigate the ancient mysteries of Central America, are keen to relate Quetzalcoatl to an actual person, who traveled the earth spreading enlightenment and good-will, yet Black Tezcatlipoca, the ''smoking obsidian mirror'' from Mictlan, is referred to strictly on metaphorical terms. But metaphysical would be a more apt synonym for this deity who could exert such a profound and bloodthirsty influence on the customs of mighty empires.

Viracocha, the Inca god of water arose from his home at the bottom of Lake Titicaca and created islands and cities and the human race before disappearing, back into the depths of the lake, just as he had come... It is said that the Inca treasure was hidden from the Spanish in a subterranean river and gallery, two thousand leagues beneath the American continent, which extends from the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, to Lake Titicaca. A path veering away from the underground river, inevitably leads to the underworld.

It was the duty of all Maya, through initiation, to conquer death and ascend to the heavens. This was demonstrated by the hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who were notably experts at the ballgame, which symbolized the planetary movements, with the ball being the sun moving in and out of the underworld, which was represented by the ballcourt itself. The account of this game and it’s links to the Afterlife occurs in the Popol Vuh.

Summoned by the gods of the underworld to display their ball playing prowess, the twins survive a series of tests to defeat the old gods of death. The last stage of the contest saw the hero twins perform miracles and bring the dead back to life. ‘Then the boys ascended into the middle of the light, and they ascended straight into the sky, one being the sun, one being the moon. When the day comes, when the night comes, the two Hunahpu and Xbalanque, one or the other is always present.’

Amerindian shaman believe in three cosmic zones, the sky, the earth and an underworld, 'where the sun continually shines' for there shall be no night there, (Revelation, 21,25.) These planes are connected by the Earth's axis, symbolised by a tree or pillar, (the backbone of Osiris) entwined by a serpent.

Shamans take psychotropic plants, peyote and jimson weed, (sacred and god-given) to stimulate the pineal gland, which in conjunction with pain, deprivation and fasting, will induce initiates to a near-death state, (like Odin hanging from Yggdrassil, over the abyss without food or water, with a self-inflicted wound) whereupon they have an out of body flight to these other worlds. Certain locations, like cross-ways or waterfalls are paths of entry between the worlds and shaman know the mystery of the break-through plane.

A fine silver cord connected to a spot above the eyes is attached to the astral body and they can soar through the air, transmogrified into a bird. Free of their bodies, these 'medicine men' have transcendental encounters with the non-human entities of mythology; there they commune with the gods and return invigorated and 'born-again' with supernatural powers, like the ability to make rain and heal the sick.

Montezuma's sister, Princess Papan was roused from the dead to tell her brother of his forthcoming doom and the end of the Aztec Empire. Papan said that after death she found herself in a great valley with mountains all around, and followed a path which led to a raging river. There she saw a youth in a long robe, fastened by a shining diamond. He had long fair hair, golden wings and a mark, like a cross on his forehead.

The young man would not let Papan pass over the river of eternity, until he had shown her the future of her people. He led the Princess through the skeletons of dead men, decayed and full of worms, they were the bones of those of her tribe who would die, suffering torture and agony. She had been chosen by the gods to return to the upper world and warn Montezuma, who was deeply troubled by his sister's vision. The arrival in Mexico of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519, brought about the fulfillment of Princess Papan's prophecy.   
 
Scandinavia

Hel was the goddess of the Scandinavian underworld, called Niflheim. It was a land of mist in the far north, surrounded on all sides by the River Gioll, and entered through a cave. As queen of nine worlds, she divided the dead into categories, the righteous went to a place of heavenly bliss but transgressors were condemned to torture. Hel, the daughter of Loki the trickster, was half black and half blue and lived in the dark, damp, dank region beneath the roots of Yggdrassil, the World Ash.

Yggdrasill is the Tree of Life, which the Aesir, (gods of Asgard) say is invisible but without it's support everything would disintegrate and explode into infinity. Odin wishing to acquire the secret of the runes, had to endure terrible sacrifice and physical torture hanging from a bough of Yggdrasill, over the fathomless abyss, for nine days and nights. He gained universal power, which he used to benefit gods and men. The Nordic gods originated in Hyperborea, a land more beautiful than any mortal man had known, beyond the 'North Wind' which took Odin's horse, Sleipnir, nine days and nights to reach.

Herodotus, the Father of History told of guardian griffins, born in the Hyperborean Mountains, who could tear a man to shreds. They were the hounds of Zeus ''who dwell about the flood of Pluto's stream that flows with gold'' and Plato declared that the real home of Apollo the sun god, is among the Hyperboreans. Pliny the Elder, a natural historian, wrote in the 1st. Century that the four main rivers of Hyperborea (the Euphrates, the Pison, the Gihon and the Hiddekel - Genesis,2,10-14) are stocked with fish, the skies are swarming with butterflies, bees and an assortment of insects, and in the ancient forests, herds of unicorns roam amidst gnarled trees shaped like monsters.

In Slavonic religious beliefs the dead returned to the womb of Moist Mother Earth by embarking on a journey across a wide sea and money was placed in the grave to pay the passage. Or the spirit may have to climb a steep mountain made of iron. This celestial 'otherworld' of eternal goodness was situated in the rainbow.

In Norse legends concerning the World's end, Loki, (the equivalent of Lucifer) who had been chained to a cavern by the gods as a punishment for killing Balder the Good, escapes over Bifrost (the rainbow bridge) to the land of the frost giants. After this omen, three terrible winters follow, like the Polar night, cold and dark with no summer, for there is no light from the sun or stars. Then comes the final battle of Ragnarok, an orgy of blood-letting in which all men perish! Fire from Muspellheim sweeps across the land, extinguishing life and purifying the Earth in preparation for the renewal of a Golden Age.   
 
Mesopotamia

Sumerians and Babylonians from Mesopotamia, who received their knowledge from the Anunnaki (seven gods of the underworld) believed the Earth to be a sphere filled with celestial air, embedded in a crystal fortress which swims in the celestial water. Below, the city of the dead was surrounded by seven walls, with seven gates and contained the dwellings of the inhabitants of the nether region, Aralu, the 'Land of no Return,' ruled by Ereshkigal and Nergal, whose symbol was a griffin.

In ancient Sumeria, serpent deities lived in the underworld and in Hindu legends they are called Nagas, who came from one of the seven worlds and were said to resemble Earth people, whom they were benign towards. Kingu was a god of the underworld and the partner of Tiamat, the serpent-dragon, (representing the chaotic oceans) in her battle against Marduk, Lord of creation. Marduk stole the Tablets of Destiny from Kingu, who was executed, and with the blood drained from Kingu's body, Ea created humankind for the rejoicing of the gods. The god's rewarded Marduk by building for him the magnificent City of Babylon, meaning 'gate' where a tower was built to reach heaven, resulting in a confusion of tongues.

Utnapishtim was warned by Ea, god of the water-depths where the Tree of Life sprouted, (watered by the Tigris and Euphrates and protected by griffins) that Enlil, the earth god of the Golden Age had grown to hate man and resolved to send a flood. Utnapishtim took an ark to the watery kingdom when the deluge was so frightening that even the gods withdrew ‘like migrating birds’ to the remote heavens of Anu, the Father of the Anunnaki. Utnapishtim grounded his ark on the summit of Mount Nisir and released a dove. He and his wife were transformed into gods and allowed to dwell forever in the distant paradise at the estuary of the streams.

Gilgamesh went on an epic voyage to find him and ask about the mysteries of death and life. When he reached the mountain at the Earth's end and passed over the waters of death, he met the far one, Utnapishtim, who gave him the gift of a briary plant, which Gilgamesh left unattended and a serpent smelling it's sweetness, carried it off. It was the plant of rejuvenation and metamorphosis which Gilgamesh had hoped would resurrect his friend Enkidu.

In Tibetan mythology, Mount Meru is where the gods reside, with it’s roots in hell, and its summit in heaven, like the Tree of Life. It is surrounded by seven rings of golden mountains, each separated from the other by one of seven circular oceans and in the underworld, where the happy dead found infinite joys and sipped Soma, the intoxicating elixir of vitality and immortality, Yama ruled with Varuna, the All-Seeing Eye of the Universe. Yami, the twin sister of Yama, was Queen of the lower world, where souls must return to be reborn.

In the Bardo Thodol it is written that upon meeting Yama, the King of the Dead, your soul judges itself by looking in the Mirror of Karma. The reflection is your own memory of thoughts, dreams, words and deeds and their consequences (this is the weighing of the heart.) By this you shall choose your next incarnation. 'Some to the womb return, embodied souls, to receive another body; others pass into a lifeless stone. In accordance with their works. In accordance with (the tradition) they had heard.'   
 
Celtic

For Celts, this paradise was the Vale of Avalon, Summerland, or the Island of Apples, a magical archipelago without grief or sorrow, which has been the abode of the old gods since the dawn of time. It was the souterrain of faeries and sprites beneath rivers, lakes and mounds and food grew naturally on the 'Isle of the Blest' without the need for cultivation. In total contrast to the upper-world, where citizens suffer greatly from cold, heat, rain and snow and are further tormented by quarrels, hunger, thirst, disease and severe anxiety, a text called, the Gesta Regum Britanniae, describes Avalon:

'This wondrous island is girdled by the ocean; it lacks no good things; no thief, reiver or enemy lurks in ambush there. No snow falls; neither Summer nor Winter rages uncontrollably, but unbroken peace, harmony and the gentle warmth of unbroken Spring. Not a flower is lacking, neither lilies, rose nor violet; the apple-tree bears flowers and fruit together on one bough. Youth and maiden live together in that place without blot or shame. Old age is unknown; there is neither sickness nor suffering-everything is full of joy. No-one selfishly keeps anything to himself; here everything is shared.'

In this 'otherworld' nine Muses ruled with pleasing laws. One was the sister of King Arthur, named Morgan le Fay, a necromancer and shape-shifting enchantress, also skilled in the arts of healing. With her magic she could make a city appear visible on the horizon, (a mirage) and seafarers who mistook it for land, met a watery death! Apparitions of enchanted lands are known to occur off the west coast of Ireland and one may be fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the "summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea."

Saint Brendan set out in a small ox-hide boat from the shores of Ireland in search of the 'Island of Promise of the Saints' in 540AD, and sailed northwards with fourteen monks, until they were lost! They passed by floating towers of crystal (icebergs) and eventually came to a rocky island where there was sheep as big as oxen. They also passed an isle with trees full of chirping birds, which were the souls of the dead. For seven long years they were driven by the wind through channels and shoals, from island to island, terrified by fire-breathing monsters and attacked by a huge bird called a 'griffa', but whenever the monks landed, the otherworld youth were always waiting to provide their needs.

At last they reached their destination, the 'Island of Promise,' there they found an orchard of luscious fruit trees, flowers, falling streams and fountains, and the marvelous creatures of the Celtic past. On the return journey their boat was enveloped in a magical mist, swirling thickly around them, and within moments Saint Brendan was in sight of home!

Fionnuala, daughter of Llyr, Lord of the Sea who ruled the land beneath the waves called Tir Faoi Thuinn, said, once there was magic on Earth... 'and dragons on huge wings floated in the skies, there were monsters in the sea and silver-horned unicorns ran wild in the forest.' The children of Llyr were changed into swans for nine hundred years, until the sound of a bell broke the spell. They were the people of the goddess Danu whose husband Bile, was god of the underworld. The Tuatha De Danann, as they were known, had green skin and came to Ireland from four magical cities across the sea.

When the Gaels invaded Ireland they agreed on a truce with the Tuatha De Danann, whereby the people of the goddess Danu were allocated the territory underground, beneath the mounds, while the land above belonged to the Gaels. This agreement was to last forever. The 'fairy hills' (sidhe) are the doors to the House of the Shadows and Brugh-na-Boyne was the Palace of Dagda, the Good God whose wife Boann gave her name to the Boyne River, which was once a sacred well, shaded by nine magic hazel-trees.

A realm of inexhaustible splendour awaits those who wish to enter through the swirling mist, but they must know how to return, or they may become helplessly lost in a twilight world between this one, and the Mid-World of Immortal Youth. Celtic heroes like, Ossian, who took up this challenge, found that upon his return from Annwn, his loved ones were long since dead and consigned to history… whereas he had not aged.

"The Bible, as well as many ancient texts and manuscripts, make reference to the 'Underworld' below as a real and genuine dwelling place. I am of the opinion, that religions have failed regarding their teaching of a 'Hell' below - because a deep scrutiny of the texts tells more of a 'paradise' rather than a burning abyss" - Brinsley Le Poer Trench, Earl of Clancarty, (Member of the House of Lords.)