I almost passed it by, read the title, meh, then upon second glance...
Copyright 1917, printed 1936, Esoteric, Fringe New-Age, in the league or school of Madame Blavatsky, The Golden Dawn, etc. Occult, Spiritualistic stuff...
The title page convinces me to give it a chance...
"OUR STORY
of
ATLANTIS
Written down for the
HERMETIC BROTHERHOOD
and
THE FUTURE RULERS
of
AMERICA"
By
W.P.Phelon, MD
This could be good. Real good. File under intellectual treasure. The cover displays the Society's logo, pressed in gilt:
To describe it as follows: A braided rope around a triple embossed triangle, within the triangle a winged globe flies beneath a skull and crossbones. Above the pyramid a ships anchor on the left and a fiery lantern on the right (guessing). The word (Acronym?) TRY is embossed beneath the pyramid...
Reading it ... I know, old school, old book, paper and all, but I have to read it...
PG 27: "It is a conceded fact there have never been, since the fall of Atlantis, so many reincarnated Atlantians upon the earth at the same time as now. This accounts for the almost universal demand out of the Astral records for the forgotten knowledge of the Occult which they there recorded."
I mean, start from here and where do you go?...
The praising and description of Atlantis doesn't end, there are numerous bad verses and odes describing Atlantis as the Garden of Eden, the lost repository of mankind's knowledge, words alone won't do it justice, you need verse, music, paintings...there are references to Lemuria, Mu, all these places are referred to as accepted fact, every printed travelers tale is taken as gospel and embellished upon by the enthusiastic narrator, lost and secret cities in Mexico, carefully kept hidden from western eyes, lost civilizations found deep within distant jungles or subterranean caves, various theories propounded for the differences in race (we each were cooked at varying times in the suns intensity...I'm not making this up...)
I'm not even halfway done and I'm loving it, it's Edgar Rice Burroughs reported as fact, the ultimate attempt to unify every batshit theory, myth, conspiracy and legend...
With this book, this Bible, I will become the King and Pope of Nelson...
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Not, per-se, a destination of mine, rather keeping the vocabulary and the thought-patterns alive until spring.
It's inspirational, this, the abundant and rich history of Washington, and we have the same here...more even, but it's better concealed beneath 10, 20, a hundred meters of glacial till...
It's an exercise, reading this, and makes me realize how little I've scratched the surface of the countless possibilities of where we live...
Paleo-placers, diamonds, gold, platinum, and where are all the opals? With all the bentonite & sandstone layers in the province, opalized wood and fossils, there have to be opals someplace...
...but that's my job. Prove the theory. 2 months and counting...
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With cold and wintry days, and not enough gas to get back to prospecting, I begin to catch up on my reading. 2 books - Oblomov, by Ivan Goncharov, a traditional Russian Satire, in the vein of Bulgakov (but some 100 years his predecessor), it's a masterpiece of characterization and a gentle satire on the Russian nobility. Nuanced, romantic, in an amazing translation by Ann Dunnigan.
And the other, Trilby, by George Du Maurier, a bestseller of the late Victorian era, as opposite in quality and temper as could be imagined, full of stereotypical characters (not all kind, the Jewish stereotypes are offensive, the English, absurd, the French, well, you get the idea. Stereotypes.), slight events, now only notable because it introduces us to the idea and character of Svengali.
Oblomov is by far the better book, take Trilby as a curiosity and colorful exaggeration of life in Bohemian Paris. But as good a way as any to while away those few remaining leisurely hours...
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Which is good, insomuch as I like the ideas of Joseph Campbell, and bad, as in the dialogue with Bill Moyers is a poor vehicle for expressing his ideas. A good book, possibly, that could have benefited greatly from a removal of the interview format and a whole lot of editing and proofreading. Not surprisingly it's an abbreviated adaptation of a documentary on Campbell by the same name. Overall, OK, not great. But inspiration in some of the quotes, for example the famous speech by Chief Seattle, which upon further research proved to be in itself a myth written by Chief Seattle's fans and admirers, fitting, perhaps.
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