Plato's Atlantis

Plato’s Atlantis and Our Threefold Nature

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“From a careful consideration of Plato’s description of Atlantis it is evident that the story should not be regarded as wholly historical but rather as both allegorical and historical. … Plato’s Atlantis symbolizes the threefold nature of both the universe and the human body. The ten kings of Atlantis are the tetractys , or numbers, which are born as five pairs of opposites. The numbers 1 to ten rule every creature, and the numbers, in turn, are under control of the Monad.

“With the trident scepter of Poseidon these kings held sway over the inhabitants of the seven small and three great islands comprising Atlantis. Philosophically, the ten islands symbolize the triune powers of the Superior Deity and the seven regents who bow before His eternal throne. If Atlantis be considered as the archetypal sphere, then its immersion signifies the descent of rational, organized consciousness into the illusionary, impermanent realm of irrational, mortal ignorance. Both the sinking of Atlantis and the Biblical story of the “fall of man” signify spiritual involution—a prerequisite to conscious evolution. …

“This does not mean to imply that Atlantis is purely mythological, but it overcomes the most serious obstacle to acceptance of the Atlantis theory.” ~Manly P. Hall

Plato’s Atlantis

The description Plato gave of Atlantis thousands of years ago remains a topic of much discussion and disagreement today. Every few years someone has a new theory of where Atlantis actually was and offers some limited proof to back up the theory. There are two problems with nearly all of these theories. First, they nearly all assume that Plato’s description is physically accurate, yet he may have been wrong about the location. Second, they ignore the allegory of the tale, just as so many ignore the allegorical tales in the Bible and the Upanishads. People need to start waking up to the fact that tales told by spiritual people are almost always allegorical in nature. Even if essentially true on a physical level, the allegorical interpretation is the important one. So the exact physical location of Atlantis is irrelevant. And maybe the reason it can’t be found is that they fail to see that its “sinking” was allegorical, not literal. So instead of searching for an island that sank, they should be searching for indications of a great civilization that fell apart. Continue reading “Plato’s Atlantis and Our Threefold Nature” →

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Atlantis and the Sun

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“Was the religious, philosophic, and scientific knowledge possessed by the priestcrafts of antiquity secured from Atlantis, whose submergence obliterated every vestige of its part in the drama of world progress? Atlantean sun worship has been perpetuated in the ritualism and cerimonialism of both Christianity and pagandom. Both the cross and the serpent were Atlantean emblems of divine wisdom. … The six sky-born sages came into manifestation as centers of light bound together or syntheesized by the seventh. … The center of the Atlantean Wisdom-Religion was presumably a great pyramidal temple… From here the Initiate-Priests of the Sacred Feather went forth, carrying the keys of Universal Wisdom to the uttermost parts of the earth.” ~Manly P. Hall

AtlantisIt is certainly true that some of the great civilizations of the past, primarily that of ancient Egypt, learned mush from the people of Atlantis who visited them regularly. It is also true that modern religions owe much of their ceremonies to the Atlantean ones, however it is not true that the Atlanteans were sun worshippers.

When certain ancient civilizations are referred to as “sun worshippers” it means, or should mean, that they worshiped the sun as God, or at least a god. This, however, is not the case with the Atlanteans and many other that historians have labeled sun worshipers. The People of Atlantis did not think that the sun was God, but rather a channel for God’s Light. They believed that just as all earthly beings have a spiritual self as well as a physical one, the physical sun also had a spiritual counterpart. The physical sun is by far the most important source of light, heat and some other energies to Earth. Likewise, the spiritual sun is the primary source of spiritual energy to beings on Earth. But just as you can hide from the radiation of the physical sun, you can, to a large degree, hide from the spiritual Light. The unfortunate thing is that you have to make an effort to hide from the physical sun, but you need make no effort at all to hide from it’s spiritual counterpart. Continue reading “Atlantis and the Sun” →

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Plato’s Atlantis

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“From a careful consideration of Plato’s description of Atlantis it is evident that the story should not be regarded as wholly historical but rather as both allegorical and historical. Origen, Porphyry, Proclus, Iamblichus, and Syrianus realized that the story concealed a profound philosophical mystery, but they disagreed as to the actual interpretation. Plato’s Atlantic symbolizes the threefold nature of both the universe and the human body. The ten kings are the tetractys, or numbers which are born as five pairs of opposites. … With the trident scepter of Poseidon these kings held sway over the inhabitants of the seven small and three great islands comprising Atlantis. Philosophically, the ten islands symbolize the triune power of the Superior Deity and the seven regents who bow before His eternal throne.” ~Manly P. Hall

Candelabra

Candelabra (Trident) of the Andes. A symbol of Atlantis?

One reason we have so much difficulty understanding the writings of the ancients is that we tend to think everything they wrote is intended to be historical fact, or is completely symbolic allegory. Plato’s tale of Atlantis is just one of many that are a mixture of both. The trick is knowing what to look at as fact and what to interpret as allegory and try to find it’s real meaning. In can get even more confusing when something is a historical fact, yet is used as allegory to explain something else. Sometimes, it is fairly obvious, such as when we read about flying ships in ancient Hindu books, that this was almost certainly allegory, but what is it’s meaning?

Hall tells us that the tale of Atlantis is allegory for the threefold nature of the universe and the body. What does he mean by that? I thing he is saying that just as man is made up of three “bodies”: the physical, the psychic and the spiritual, so is the universe, and Plato reflects this in his description of Atlantis. So if you search for a place that meets the physical description of Atlantis in the hope of finding the place, it won’t work. Atlantis was a real place, but the description of it is largely allegorical. Continue reading “Plato’s Atlantis” →

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The Lesson of Atlantis

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“The descendants of Atlas continued as rulers of Atlantis, and with wise government and industry elevated the country to a position of surpassing dignity. … Precious metals were mined, animals domesticated, and perfumes distilled from its fragrant flowers. … The Atlanteans employed themselves in the erection of palaces, temples, and docks. … A network of bridges and canals was created by the Atlanteans to unite the various parts of their kingdom. Plato then descrbes the white, black, and red stones which they quarried. … In the groves and gardens were hot and cold springs. There were numerous temples to various deities, places of exercise for men and for beasts, public baths, and a great race course for horses. … Plato concludes that it was this great empire which attacked the Helenic states. This did not occur, however, until their power and glory had lured the Atlantean kings from the pathway of wisdom and virtue. Filled with false ambition, the rulers of Atlantis determined to conquer the entire world. Zeus, perceiving the wickedness of the Atlanteans, gathered the gods into his holy habitation to discuss them. Here Plato’s narrative comes to an abrupt end.” ~Manly P. Hall

AtlantisWith the rise of so-called New Age groups and schools, a renewed interest in spiritual growth, and a number of major archeological finds in the past few decades, there has been an increased interest in Atlantis. If you ask almost anyone, they can tell you that Atlantis was a great kingdom that sank into the sea and was destroyed, but few know the details given above.

I won’t bother to argue in favor or any of the theories on the location of Atlantis, when or where it actually was, or whether or not it truly sank. Those things are not particularly important to this post, nor, I believe, were they to Plato’s story. I think Plato was more interested in the lessons the tale teach us rather than the truth of the details, or even if Atlantis actually existed.

Plato tells us that Atlantis was a great kingdom. It had a benevolent government that operated for the benefit of the people. It had industry that supplied the needs of the people rather than just trying to make the business owners wealthy. The people worked together for the betterment of all and, as a result, make great advances is agriculture, architecture, chemistry, astronomy, and many other sciences and arts. They were recognized as the greatest and most advanced civilization in the world by those they had commerce with including the ancient Egyptians. It is believed by many that the rather sudden advances Egypt made in those same fields were at least partially the result of Atlantean training. Continue reading “The Lesson of Atlantis” →

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