#290 - After Atlantis

I think... that Atlantis is important not to the entire world, but to this part of it. The two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. It is important to South East Asia, South America, (honestly I don't know much about North America), Europe all the way to India. That bit of the world. I don't think it affects China so much. Although Steiner said something like Attila the Hun was named after Atlantis. Well, maybe I'll keep an open mind. Maybe it WAS important to the entire world. But certainly, there are many similarities to the myths from Ancient India. There is no running away from the similarities there to the stories which then go on to affect Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Northern Europe, and so on and so forth. The so called archetypes... when ever I try and write something about myths the entire thing collapses like smoke. Like the strange, incorporeal subject which it is. But maybe if I just start off with Ancient India.

But I'd like to back up slightly. It startled me a little when I looked at the Steiner curriculum and realised that the basic myths which were taught were myths which I had been fascinated with since I was a child. We had Malay lessons in the school library when I was in the convent and instead of paying attention to the Malay lessons, one day, when I was a little bit bored, I discovered that I was sitting in front of the collection of ancient myths in the library. Children's books about the Nazca lines, Greek mythology, and so on. I would read these stories of ancient Gods voraciously - and they would become a life long obsession. In university I did Native American myths and discovered Norse mythology. I read Snorri Sturlusson's translated stories over and over again and became obsessed with Loki. Later my dissertation would be on the Trickster and women were like Tricksters. Of viewed as such, looking at the Amazons as this archetype. I read Jung and Campbell and Frazer and Graves... and after I left university, I became an atheist and began to read obsessively about the Goddess. As a hardcore feminist I was uneathing the many faces of the Goddess and how she had been suppressed. I followed the cycles of the moon and the year - and my own cycle. How strange that I had my own cycle then!

I became pregnant and suddenly I was all about the Indian myths. I read all about them and named Oisin after Shiva, the God of Destruction, as I fell in love with Shiva. The only myths which I had not covered by the time I began my life as a teacher were the Mesopotamian and Persian myths. This was sorted out in short order... although Tiamat I knew about through my readings about the Goddess. I then became even more interested in mystic Christianity and the figure of Christ. Every year, the more I knew, thanks to the Internet, the more wonderful the world seemed. I think that is the point of education - to fall in love with the world. To fall in love with one's fellow man, to be enchanted and entranced by it all. 

Effectively, by the time I began teaching as a teacher, all those stories, even the fairytales and the Bible and the Old Testament, I already knew like old friends. There was no having to play catch up at all. The foundations had been laid. I knew these stories like the back of my hands. Their journey was my journey and I have never failed to marvel at the 'coincidence'.

So, I said I would begin with Ancient India.

A Flood

The story of the flood is found in all parts of the world. It is a story which many trace back to the Younger Dyras. Apparently there was a Flood which triggers this period. This coincides roughly with the Upper Paleolithic. This causes suddenly cooling of the Earth, ushering in a new Ice Age. So this was around 13,000 years ago. It doesn't seem that long ago, especially since we think humans have been knocking about for 2 million years, and then they reckon homo sapien 200,000 years. But if you look at history, the first civilisations which were recorded were around 50,000 years (Aboriginies) and I suppose something which more of us can wrap our heasd round, just because of the numbers Ancient Egypt, 3,000 BC. This means that by the time the Ancient Egyptians came about, there was a good 10,000 years between them and the Flood. 

This is a very long time. 

What caused the Flood is a still a matter of dispute. What is clear is that something happened which caused it to go down in the stories of all the peoples of the Earth. A Flood takes place somewhere and everything is destroyed. There must have been people about since they remember this Flood and handed the stories down to their descendants. So it was probably the Younger Dryas Flood.

In the story of Atlantis and more important for our case, the Ancient Indians, this Flood (maybe brought on by the Earthquake) results in them having to leave their land. They are hauled to safety - Ancient India - by the first avatar of Vishnu, Matysa. Together with the Rishi, Manu stats a new life. Where did he come from - was it Atlantis? The details are scant and scarce and tantalising.

Ancient Indian mythology is mind bogglingly complex. The few stories I have read when I say few I mean the Mahabratha and Ramayana, and several myths around the major players, so few compared to the absolute span of the topic, are incredibly nuanced and full of allegory. In the same way that the Tarot cards are secret books of learning, and the book of Revelations and Gospels are full of concepts and lessons concealed in them, Hindu mythology is the most complex of all mythological systems. They are boxes in boxes in boxes. Read one like of the Mahabhrata for instance and you are entering a Hall of Mirrors. It never stops the symbolism and the behaviour of each character. In comparison, Western mythology as the Iliad - I suppose the closest I have read is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Even these do not stand up to the reverberations of Hindu mythology. Its expansiveness knows no bounds. It is no wonder that it is the world's oldest living religion.

It is the mythological system I most identify with because it is so fascinating. (How it has been co-opted by the state and turned into an instrument of sexist and racist oppression, we have to leave aside.)

After this comes the mythic system which the oldest epic in the world comes from (I really don't think it can be older than the Mahabratha.) However this is what the 'experts' say. The Epic of Gilgamesh comes from the Fertile Crescent. At some point human beings learnt how to cultivate and farm and do agriculture and it is from the first cities that this epic arrives. In this epic there is also the story of the flood. The Flood story comes from a Noah figure - he precedes Noah, who is not unlike the Manu figure - Utnapashistam. He builds a large boat, about one acre large, and is made to take animals, his family and after 12 days, he comes to rest on the top of a mountain. 

It is, of course, the same story as Noah. Which can be traced by to Utnapashistam and then Manu.

There is also a Flood story in ancient Egypt - indeed Egypt relies on floods to be fertile so Floods have a special place in their psyche, and there is also a Flood story in Ancient Greece and Norse/Teutonic mythology. I'm not sure if there is one in Celtic mythology, but Celtic mythology is so full of holes because the Druids did not write anything down.

Once again, geography is destiny.

So here we are. Having taken a quick look at the Flood and how it appears in these stories. The most in tact ancient story of the Flood comes from Ancient India and the story which then is handed down, certainly wherever later Christiantiy would flourish, is the one about Utnapashistam. 

However, it is always there, tying so any cultures and consciousnesses together - the Flood myth. And right at the invisible heart of it is - Atlantis.