THE PLACE OF THE ATLANTEAN TRADITION IN THE MANVANTARA
In the preceding chapter we pointed out the all too common confusion between the primordial tradition, which was originally 'polar' in the literal sense of the word and whose starting-point is the very same as the present Manvantara, and the derivative and secondary Atlantean tradition, which relates to a much more restricted period. We said then, as we have said before, [1] that this confusion could be explained in some measure by the fact that the subordinate spiritual centers were constituted in the image of the supreme center, and that the same appellations had been applied to them. Thus it is that the Atlantean Tula, a name preserved in Central America where it was brought by the Toltecs, must have been the seat of a spiritual power that was as it were an emanation from that of the Hyperborean Tula; and since the name Tula designates Libra [the Scales], its double application is closely related to the transfer of that same designation from the polar constellation of the Great Bear to the zodiacal sign which even today bears the name of the Scales. It is also to the Atlantean tradition that one should relate the transfer of the sapta-riksha (the symbolic dwelling place of the seven Rishis) at a certain epoch from the same Great Bear to the Pleiades, a constellation also formed of seven stars but in a zodiacal position; what leaves no doubt in this respect is that the Pleiades were said to be daughters of Atlas and, as such, also called Atlantides.
All this is in accord with the geographical locations of the traditional centers, themselves linked to their own characteristics as well as to their respective places in the cyclical period, for everything here holds together more closely than could be supposed by those ignorant of the laws of certain correspondences. Hyperborea obviously corresponds to the North, and Atlantis to the West; and it is remarkable that although the very designations of these two regions are clearly distinct, they may also give rise to confusion since names of the same root were applied to both. In fact, one finds this root under diverse forms such as hiber, iber, or eber, and also ereb by transposition of letters, designating both the region of winter, that is, the North, and the region of evening or the setting sun, that is, the West, and the peoples who inhabit both; this fact is manifestly of the same order as those we just mentioned.
The very position of the Atlantean center on the East-West axis indicates its subordination with respect to the Hyperborean center, located at the North-South polar axis. Indeed, although in the complete system of the six directions of space the conjunction of these two axes forms what one can call a horizontal cross, the NorthSouth axis must nonetheless be regarded as relatively vertical with respect to the East-West axis, as we have explained elsewhere. [2] In conformity with the symbolism of the annual cycle, one can still call the first of these two axes the solstitial axis and the second the equinoctial axis; and this helps us understand that the starting-point given to the year may not be the same in all the traditional forms. The starting-point that one can call normal, as being in direct conformity with primordial tradition, is the winter solstice; the fact of starting the year at one of the equinoxes indicates the attachment to a secondary tradition, such as the Atlantean tradition.
Since this last, on the other hand, is located in a region that corresponds to evening in the diurnal cycle, it must be regarded as belonging to one of the last divisions of the cycle of present terrestrial humanity and therefore as relatively recent; and in fact, without seeking to give precise details which would be difficult to justify, one can say that it certainly belongs to the second half of the present
Manvantara. [3] Besides, just as the autumn of the year corresponds to evening in the day, one can see a direct allusion to the Atlantean world in the fact that the Hebraic tradition (whose name moreover betrays its Western origin) indicates that the world was created at the autumn equinox (the first day of the month of Thishri according to a certain transposition of the word Bereshith); and perhaps that is also the most immediate reason (there are others of a more profound order) for the enunciation of 'evening' (ereb) before 'morning' (boker) in the recital of the 'days' of Genesis. [4] This is confirmed by the fact that the literal meaning of the name Adam is 'red', for the Atlantean tradition was precisely that of the red race; and it seems also that the biblical deluge corresponds directly to the cataclysm in which Atlantis disappeared and that, consequently, it must not be identified with the deluge of Satyavrata which, according to Hindu tradition, having issued directly from the primordial tradition, immediately preceded the beginning of our Manvantara. [5] Of course, this meaning, which one can call historical, does not in any way exclude the other meanings; besides, one must never lose sight of the fact that, according to the analogy that exists between a principal cycle and the secondary cycles into which it is subdivided, all considerations of this order are always susceptible of applications at different degrees; but what we wish to say is that, although the Atlantean cycle was taken as a foundation in the Hebrew tradition, it seems that the transmission was made either by the mediation of the Egyptians-which at least has nothing improbable about it-or by altogether different means.
If we make this last reservation, it is because it seems particularly difficult to determine how, after the disappearance of Atlantis, the current coming from the West was joined with another current descending from the North and proceeding directly from the primordial tradition, a junction from which was to result the constitution of the different traditional forms proper to the last part of the Manvantara. This is in any case not a matter of a reabsorption pure and simple in the primordial tradition of what went forth from it at an earlier epoch; it is a matter of a sort of fusion of forms previously differentiated to give birth to other forms adapted to new circumstances of time and place; and the fact that the two currents then appear in a way to be autonomous can further support the illusion of the independence of the Atlantean tradition. If one wished to research the conditions under which that fusion took place, it would doubtless be necessary to give particular importance to the Celts and the Chaldeans, whose name, which is the same, designated in reality not a particular people, but rather a sacerdotal caste; but who knows today what the Celtic and Chaldean traditions were, or even that of the ancient Egyptians? One cannot be overprudent when it comes to civilizations that have entirely disappeared, and it is certainly not the attempts at reconstitution to which profane archeologists devote themselves that are likely to shed light on the question; but it is nonetheless true that many vestiges of a forgotten past are coming out of the earth in our age, and perhaps not without reason. Without risking the slightest prediction on what can result from these discoveries, the possible importance of which those who make them are generally incapable of suspecting, we must certainly see in this a 'sign of the times'. Must not everything be found again at the end of the Manvantara, to serve as a starting-point for the elaboration of the future cycle?