Rise and Demise of Atlantis: Occult Features of the Fourth Race of Humanity and Its Fall into Matter

H.P. Blavatsky, compiled and edited by Dr C.A. Bartzokas, MD · Integrative Theosophical Studies, Series 4 — Anthropogenesis · 56 pages

The Anthropogenesis volume of the series, first published in 2006, gathers what the Secret Doctrine has to say about Atlantis and the Fourth Race of humanity. The framing matters: Atlantis is treated here not as a legend to be assessed but as a stage in the descent of humanity into matter, and the book proceeds accordingly — topology first, then chronology, then the physical and moral character of the race itself. The compiler opens by insisting that the Secret Doctrine is humanity's common property, not the possession of any school.

The account that follows is specific. Atlantis is described as a global configuration of islands covering what is now the mid-Atlantic together with portions of the Pacific and even the Indian Ocean, with Europe and America joined by a land passage of which Iceland, Madeira and the other Atlantic islands are the remnants. Its sinking is dated to 856,000 years ago, coinciding with the elevation of the Alps. The Titans and Cyclopes of classical myth are identified as Atlanteans; the human frame is described consolidating and becoming symmetrical, two front eyes developing while the seers sinned and lost the third; and after the separation of the sexes, Karman is said to have forced the creative gods to incarnate in mindless men, whereupon sight and speech developed together, language being coeval with reason.

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