Egypt: Child of Atlantis: A Radical Interpretation of the Origins of Civilization

by John Gordon

Overview

Reveals that Egyptian civilization is far older than commonly believed and that its sacred science was the legacy of the gods who founded Atlantis

• Explains the cosmological and astronomical underpinnings of Egyptian philosophy and how they gave structure to the entire society

• Explores the importance of the Precession of the Equinoxes in the initiatory nature of Egyptian life

This book asserts that the civilization of Egypt existed far longer than is commonly believed and was structured around forms of cosmic knowledge that involved astronomical and geographical competence that modern science has yet to attain. Building on evidence of the prehistoric existence of an ancient worldwide religious culture that extended all the way to Tibet and China, John Gordon traces the origins of Egyptian culture to the legendary lost continent of Atlantis. Based on an understanding of the Precession of the Equinoxes and its inextricable connection to human evolution and divine purpose, he concludes that the sacred science of the ancient Egyptians was the legacy left to them by “fallen star gods,” conscious divine beings who founded Atlantis.

Egyptologists contend that ancient Egypt was a civilization obsessed with death, that its greatest monuments were tombs, and that its history dates back only some 5,000 years. In contrast Gordon suggests this civilization to have been 50,000 years older. Furthermore, he contends that Egypt was originally not a society obsessed with death, but one that saw in life and death an initiatory transition. This idea was followed by the entire population, which was attuned to the form and nature of cosmic evolution at all levels of being, from the highest to the most mundane.

John Gordon was a senior fellow of the Theosophical Society of England, where he lectured on ancient history and metaphysics. He is the author of several books, including Self-Consistent Kosmos.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591438748
Publisher:	Inner Traditions / Bear & Company
Publication date:	01/20/2012
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

J. S. Gordon (1946-2013) held a master’s degree in Western Esotericism from the University of Exeter and was a senior fellow of the Theosophical Society of England, where he lectured on ancient history and metaphysics. Known for his in-depth knowledge on the ancient Egyptian mystical tradition, he wrote several books, including The Path of Initiation and Land of the Fallen Star Gods.

Read an Excerpt

from Chapter 3
The Disappearing “Atlantes”

The Defeat of the Atlanteans by the Ancient Greeks

One of the other things related by the priests of Sais to Solon in the story told by Plato was that the Greeks of his day were but the puny remnants of a heroic Hellene stock which had lived in far earlier times when the Atlantes were busy tyrannising the peoples of the Mediterranean generally. So the story went, although severely outnumbered, the Hellenes fought and beat the Atlantes so convincingly that their power was finally broken and never recovered. As a result, it seems that the Atlantes withdrew back to their own lands in the Atlantic and thereafter remained in relative isolation. Sadly, no indication of the even approximate time spans involved appears to have been mentioned by the priests. However, if this part of Plato's story is true--and it has to be regarded as on a par with the rest concerning his Atlantean island itself--then it lends yet further credence to the suggestion of an Atlantean (or Atlanto-Aryan) colony in Egypt--or in Libya/Tunisia just to the west--the parent civilisation of which had, for some reason, retrenched, leaving behind its giant temples and pyramids as mute testimony to its own prior existence. The withdrawal of political and economic control over its Egyptian colony in such fashion would, however, have had exactly the same effect upon the local population as occurred in Britain and Gaul when the Romans withdrew to Rome after the Goths and Vandals attacked it. In that case, many Romans stayed behind (rather than return to Rome) and, through intermarriage, integrated both their families and their traditions completely with the local population. Now, much less than two thousand years later, just how much of the original Roman presence can be seen? In Britain, far less than in France.

The fact that the people of ancient Egypt seem to have spoken a Harnitic language adds further fuel to our fire. In addition--as we shall in greater detail in the next chapter--Victorian ethnologists took the view from their own researches that there were distinct racial connections not only between the language of the natives of the Caribbean Islands, the Canary Islands (the Guanches) and that of the Basques, but also with the Hamitic and Dravidian tongues.  So, an indistinct but nevertheless obvious ancient trail seems to extend right across north Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and also up into the heartlands of Asia Minor and thence to Tibet.

So what are we left with from all this? Central and southern Africa populated south of the Sahara (probably due to an ancient submersion of the latter) generally by a "proto-Bantu"-speaking, Atlanto-negroid people whose roots appear slightly north of the Equator, from a point on the Atlantic coast of west Africa; that Egypt itself appears to have been colonised from the west via Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia by (northern) Atlantes speaking an utterly different Hamitic root-language, like the Guanche of the Canary Islands, and having distinctively Indo-Aryan features; that it was otherwise (later) colonised from the east by other (Caucasian) Indo-Aryans via north-west India, the Levant and Arabia; that Egypt was undoubtedly colonized prior to 100,000 years ago by people with already highly advanced cultures. Such a range of scenarios could hardly be more different to the prosaic one provided by contemporary archaeological theory, could it?

Table of Contents

Introduction A Fresh Approach

Part One ORIGINS

One: Cosmic Seasons and Astronomical Cycles
Two: Geological, Geographical, and Climatological Issues
Three: The Disappearing “Atlantes”
Four: The Appearance of Culture and Civilization

Part Two TRADITIONS

Five: Egyptian Magic and the Law of Hierarchy
Six: Two Egyptian Mystery Traditions Reconsidered
Seven: Gods of the Abyss and Underworld
Eight: The Ancient Esoteric Division of Egypt and the Significance of Its Main Temples

Part Three KNOWLEDGE

Nine: Completing the “Jigsaw Puzzle” of Astronomical Metaphors and Allegories
Ten: Sacred Geometry and the “Living” Architecture of Egypt
Eleven: The Esoteric Significance of the Sphinx and Pyramids
Twelve: The Internal Geometry of the Great Pyramid Thirteen Reflections

APPENDICES

A The Relationship between the Sothic Year and the Annus Magnus
B From Plato’s Timaeus
C On Geology
D From Schwaller de Lubicz’s Sacred Science
E From S. A. Mackey’s The Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients (1824)
F Philological Issues
G The Egyptian Version of the Inner Constitution of Man
H Concerning the Duat
I Concerning the God-Name Seker
J Concerning Sebek, Set, and Horus
K The Circumpolar Stars and the “Mill of the Gods”
L Concerning Ursa Major
M The Astroterrestrial Axes among Egypt, Greece, and the Levant
N Correlations between the Egyptian and Greek Mystery Schools
O On the Significance of Double Statuary in Egypt
P The Meaning of Ether/Aether According to the Principles of Hermetic Science
Q On the Levitation of Stone by the Use of Sound

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Among the occult literature Egypt is a book with more solid facts than most."

“That an advanced Lost Civilization is part of our human heritage should now be self-evident. John Gordon’s book takes the currently neglected ‘long’ view of the Lost Civilization hypothesis (derived mainly from Theosophy and Hindu/Vedic accounts) and defends it with solid scholarship, reasoned argument, and a deep understanding of esoteric philosophy. This is a really interesting book.”

"Amongst the more than 100 books I have reviewed this year, this is one of the ones which required the highest degree of concentration. Each chapter, indeed each paragraph, deserves to be read with total commitment to absorbing the information contained therein."

“Brilliant, erudite, and controversial, John Gordon has used Madame Blavatsky’s insights to throw a new light on ancient Egyptian civilization.”

Editorial Reviews

"Among the occult literature Egypt is a book with more solid facts than most."

August 2004 - SirReadaLot.com

That an advanced Lost Civilization is part of our human heritage should now be self-evident. John Gordon’s book takes the currently neglected ‘long’ view of the Lost Civilization hypothesis (derived mainly from Theosophy and Hindu/Vedic accounts) and defends it with solid scholarship, reasoned argument, and a deep understanding of esoteric philosophy. This is a really interesting book.

John Anthony West

"Amongst the more than 100 books I have reviewed this year, this is one of the ones which required the highest degree of concentration. Each chapter, indeed each paragraph, deserves to be read with total commitment to absorbing the information contained therein."

Mike Gleason

Brilliant, erudite, and controversial, John Gordon has used Madame Blavatsky’s insights to throw a new light on ancient Egyptian civilization.

Colin Wilson

"Among the occult literature Egypt is a book with more solid facts than most."

August 2004 SirReadaLot.com

Brilliant, erudite, and controversial, John Gordon has used Madame Blavatsky’s insights to throw a new light on ancient Egyptian civilization.

coauthor of The Atlantis Blueprint and author of T Colin Wilson

That an advanced Lost Civilization is part of our human heritage should now be self-evident. John Gordon’s book takes the currently neglected ‘long’ view of the Lost Civilization hypothesis (derived mainly from Theosophy and Hindu/Vedic accounts) and defends it with solid scholarship, reasoned argument, and a deep understanding of esoteric philosophy. This is a really interesting book.

author of The Traveler’s Key to Ancient Egyp John Anthony West

That an advanced Lost Civilization is part of our human heritage should now be self-evident. John Gordon’s book takes the currently neglected ‘long’ view of the Lost Civilization hypothesis (derived mainly from Theosophy and Hindu/Vedic accounts) and defends it with solid scholarship, reasoned argument, and a deep understanding of esoteric philosophy. This is a really interesting book.”

“Brilliant, erudite, and controversial, John Gordon has used Madame Blavatsky’s insights to throw a new light on ancient Egyptian civilization.”

"Among the occult literature Egypt is a book with more solid facts than most."

"Amongst the more than 100 books I have reviewed this year, this is one of the ones which required the highest degree of concentration. Each chapter, indeed each paragraph, deserves to be read with total commitment to absorbing the information contained therein."

From the Publisher

That an advanced Lost Civilization is part of our human heritage should now be self-evident. John Gordon’s book takes the currently neglected ‘long’ view of the Lost Civilization hypothesis (derived mainly from Theosophy and Hindu/Vedic accounts) and defends it with solid scholarship, reasoned argument, and a deep understanding of esoteric philosophy. This is a really interesting book.

author of The Traveler’s Key to Ancient Egyp John Anthony West