Agartha (sometimes Agartta, Agharti, Agarath, [1] Agarta, Agharta, or Agarttha) is a legendary kingdom that is said to be located on the inner surface of the Earth. [2] It is sometimes related to the belief in a hollow Earth[ citation needed] and is a popular subject in esotericism. [3]
History
The legend of Agartha remained mostly obscure in Europe until Gérard Encausse edited and re-published a detailed 1886 account by the nineteenth-century French occultist Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre (1842–1909), Mission de l'Inde en Europe, [4] in 1910. [5]
After World War I, German occultist groups such as the Thule Society took an interest in Agartha. [6]
In his 1922 book, Beasts, Men and Gods, the Polish explorer Ferdynand Ossendowski relates a story which was imparted to him concerning a subterranean kingdom existing inside the Earth. This kingdom is known to a fictional Buddhist society as Agharti. [7]
Connections to mythology
Agartha is frequently associated or confused with Shambhala [8] which figures prominently in Vajrayana Buddhism and Tibetan Kalachakra teachings and revived in the West by Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society. Theosophists in particular regard Agarthi as a vast complex of caves underneath Tibet inhabited by demi-gods, called asuras. Helena and Nicholas Roerich, whose teachings closely parallel theosophy, see Shambhala's existence as both spiritual and physical. [9]
See also
References
- ^ Ossendowski, Ferdinand; Palen, Lewis Stanton (2003), Beasts, Men and Gods, Kessinger Publishing, p. 118, ISBN 978-0-7661-5765-1
- ^ Eco, Umberto (5 August 2006). "Commentary: Spheres of influence". The Observer.
- ^ Tamas, Mircea Alexandru (2003), Agarttha, the invisible center, Rose-Cross Books, ISBN 978-0-9731191-1-4
- ^ Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, Alexandre (1910) [1886]. La mission de l'Inde en Europe (in French). Lahure. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
- ^ Guenon, Rene (1958), Le Roi du Monde, Gallimard, ISBN 9780900588587
-
^
de Lafayette, Maximillien (30 September 2018).
Aldebaran Vril: 1917 (5 ed.). New York: Times Square Press. p. 37.
ISBN
9780359129096. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
Thule Gesellschaft [...] members sought Agartha.
- ^ Ferdynand Ossendowski (1922). Beasts, Men and Gods. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company.
- ^ Greer, John Michael (2003), The New Encyclopedia of the Occult, Llewellyn Publications, ISBN 1-56718-336-0
- ^ File:"About Shambala" N.Roerich.ogg
External links
- Map/diagram of Agharta and the Hollow Earth, based on writings of Raymond W. Bernard.
- On Edward Bulwer-Lytton: Agharta, Shambhala, Vril and the Occult Roots of Nazi Power, by Joseph George Caldwell.
- "An Algorithmic Agartha"—Essay-Contribution to Culture Machine 16, 2015 (the journal's Special-Issue on Drone Culture). Welcome to the Electrocene, An Algorithmic Agartha.
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