* It has been suggested to me that the green light might have been caused by that strange phenomenon known as Ignis Fatuus (Foolish Fire) – sometimes referred to as ‘Will-o-the-Wisp’ in folklore – which results from the marsh gas in putrefied earth that gives off little flames when trodden upon. And that the rumbling noise was merely the sudden movement of some subterranean rocks. While both explanations are undeniably plausible, they do not entirely convince me.
* Cutcliffe-Hyne wrote an excellent novel on the theme of the last days of Atlantis called The Lost Continent, which was published in 1899 and, though rarely read today, is still widely quoted in studies of fantasy fiction.
* The belief in there being an entrance to a subterranean world in this part of Yorkshire is also expressed in the grim novel Land Under England by Joseph O’Neill (1886-1953), which was published in 1935. O’Neill, who was Permanent Secretary to the Department of Education in the Irish Free State from 1923 to 1944, describes an ancient totalitarian society of people living underground in caves and passageways and using telepathy to control the minds of its inhabitants. The book was widely regarded at the time as an allegorical attack on Nazi Germany.
* According to the most widely held belief, the Earth – which has a circumference at the equator of 24,902 miles and a surface area of 197 million square miles – consists of a small inner core of molten iron and nickel (about 800 miles wide), an outer core of molten iron and nickel, a mantle of solid rock (1,800 miles thick), and on top of this a three-to-five miles covering of outer crust. The Hollow Earth believers claim that inside this outer crust is not solid matter but a world of oceans and landmasses which can be entered by holes at either the North or South Poles, or through deep faults in the planet’s surface.
THE LEGEND OF AGHARTI
The Legend of Agharti – the belief in a subterranean kingdom linked to the far corners of the earth by a network of tunnels – can be traced back to Antiquity. Mention of it is found in the oldest traditions, and references to it are recorded in ancient manuscripts belonging to the earliest civilizations. Most of these accounts speak of it being inhabited by people who settled there long before the dawn of history – a peace-loving race concerned with the purity of their lives and exercising as far as possible a moderating influence on the people living above on the Earth’s surface.
Just how firmly entrenched the idea is proves not hard to discover, for as Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier have stated in their remarkable assessment of‘lost’ and ‘occult’ knowledge, The Morning of the Magicians (1960):
The most ancient religious texts speak of separate worlds situated underneath the Earth’s crust which was supposed to be the dwelling place of departed spirits. When Gilgamesh, the legendary hero of the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian epics, went to visit his ancestor Utnapishtim, he descended into the bowels of the Earth; and it was there that Orpheus went to seek the soul of Eurydice. Ulysses, having reached the furthermost boundaries of the Western world, offered a sacrifice so that the spirits of the Ancients would rise up from the depths of the Earth and give him advice. Pluto was said to reign over the underworld and the spirits of the dead. The early Christians used to meet in the catacombs, and believed that the souls of the damned went to live in caverns beneath the Earth.
For further emphasis of the point we need only turn to Sabine Baring-Gould, who has said:
Wonderful caves, entrances to a mysterious underworld, are common in many countries. The German stories of the mountain of Venus, in which the Tannhäuser remains, or of Frederick Barbarossa, in the Unterberg, or the Welsh stories of King Arthur in the heart of the mountain, seen occasionally, or the Danish fables of Holger Dansk in the vaults under the Kronenburg, all refer to the generally spread belief in an underworld inhabited by spirits.
If we next refer to the archaeologist Harold Bayley’s fascinating book, Archaic England (1919), we find he has taken the subject a stage further and pointed out that a number of the world’s great legendary heroes are supposed to have actually come from the subterranean world. He writes:
Practically all the ‘Mighty Childs’ of mythology are represented as having sprung from caves or underground: Jupiter or Chi was cave-born and worshipped in a cave; Dionysos was said to have been nurtured in a cave; Hermes was born at the mouth of a cave, and it is remarkable that, whereas a cave is still shown as the birthplace of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem, St. Jerome complained that in his day the pagans celebrated the worship of Thammuz, or Adonis, i.e. Adon, at that very cave.
Mr Bayley goes on to show that it is even possible to find references in the ancient texts to a persistent belief in primitive man that he had originated from a cave. In a chapter entitled ‘Down Under’ he says:
Etymology and mythology alike point to the probability, if not the certainty, that among the ancients a cave, natural or artificial, was regarded as the symbol of, and to some extent a facsimile of, the intricate Womb of Creation, or of Mother Nature. ‘Man in his primitive state,’ says a recent writer, ‘considers himself to have emerged from some cave; in fact, from the entrails of the Earth. Nearly all American creation-myths regard man as thus emanating from the bowels of the great terrestrial mother.’ A sketch of a rotund female figure, evidently representative of the Great Terrestrial Mother holding in her hand a simple horn, the forerunner of the later cornucopia, or horn of abundance, is the outline sketch on a rock carved cliff in the Dordogne. It has been proved to be of Aurignacian age and is the only yet discovered statue of any size executed by the so-called Reindeer men.
We must not, however, get too embroiled in a discussion about primitive man, but concentrate our efforts on the more specific references to the underworld kingdom we know as Agharti. To this end I should like to quote from another leading authority on the legends of subterranean worlds, Professor Henrique Jose de Souza. In a fascinating article entitled, ‘Does Shangri-la Exist?’ published in the Brazilian Theosophical Society’sJournal in 1960 he wrote:
Among all races of mankind, back to the dawn of time, there existed a tradition concerning the existence of a Sacred Land or Terrestrial Paradise, where the highest ideals of humanity were living realities. This concept is found in the most ancient writings and traditions of the peoples of Europe, Asia Minor, China, India, Egypt and the Americas. This Sacred Land, it is said, can be known only to persons who are worthy, pure and innocent, for which reason it constitutes the central theme of the dreams of childhood.
In Ancient Greece, in the Mysteries of Delphos and Eleusis, this Heavenly Land was referred to as Mount Olympus and the Elysian Fields. Also in the earliest Vedic times, it was called by various names, such as Ratnasanu (peak of the precious stone), Hermadri (mountain of gold) and Mount Neru (home of the gods) and Olympus of the Hindus. Symbolically, the peak of this sacred mountain is the sky, its middle portion on the earth and its base in the Subterranean World.
The Scandinavian Eddas also mention this celestial city, which was the subterranean Land of Asar of the peoples of Mesopotamia. It was the Land of Amenti of the sacred Book of the Dead of the ancient Egyptians. It was the City of Seven Petals of Vishnu, or the City of the Seven Kings of Edom or Eden of Judaic tradition. In other words, it was the Terrestrial Paradise.
In all Asia Minor, not only in the past but also today, there exists a belief in the existence of a City of Mystery full of marvels, which is known as Shamballah, where is the Temple of the Gods. It is also the Erdemi of the Tibetans and Mongols.
The Persians call it Alberdi or Aryana, land of their ancestors. The Hebrews called it Canaan and the Mexicans Tula or Tulan, while the Aztecs called it Maya-Pan. The Spanish Conquerors who came to America believed in the existence of such a city and organized many expeditions to find it, calling it El Dorado, or City of Gold. They probably learned about it from the aborigines who called it by the name of Manca or ‘City Whose King Wears Clothing of Gold’.
By the Celts, this holy land was known as ‘Land of the Mysteries’ – Dust or Dananda.
A Chinese tradition speaks of the Land of Chivin or the ‘City of a Dozen Serpents’. It is the Subterranean World, which lies at the roots of heaven. It is the Land of Calcas, Calcis or Kalki, the famous Colchida for which the Argonauts sought when they set out in search of the Golden Fleece.
In the Middle Ages, it was referred to as the Isle of Avalon, where the Knights of the Round Table, under the leadership of King Arthur and under the guidance of the magician Merlin, went in search of the Holy Grail, symbol of obedience, justice and immortality. When King Arthur was seriously wounded in a battle, he requested his companion Bedivere to depart on a boat to the confines of the earth, with the following words: ‘Farewell, my friend and companion Bedivere, I go to the Land where it never rains, where there is no sickness and where nobody dies.’ This is the Land of Immortality or Agharti, the Subterranean World. This land is the Valhalla of the Germans, the Monte Salvat of the Knights of the Holy Grail, the Utopia of Thomas More, the City of the Sun of Campanella, the Shangri-la of Tibet and Agharti of the Buddhist world.
Not all the evidence concerning Agharti is so generalized, however, and as we progress down over the years we can find a number of specific reports which further underline the widespread belief in the underground Kingdom.
One of the earliest and most curious of these traditions is to be found in the East, where a report claims that the first man, Adam, actually came from a subterranean world. According to an ancient sage named St Ephrem, his home was ‘in the middle of the Earth’ and his dying words were that his ‘redeemer and that of his posterity’ would come from this place. The tradition goes on to say that Adam’s body was embalmed and then kept safely until a priest called Melchizedek, a wise man from the subterranean world, eventually arrived some years later through a tunnel to take it back for proper burial. This story is further substantiated in the Koran, which describes Adam as having been a handsome man ‘as tall as a palm tree’, while Hindu lore says that he was the king of a group of Elders who had first gone underground at the time of a great cataclysm and then returned to supervise the re-establishment of life on the surface world.
There are several references to an underground kingdom in the classical texts, including that of Hanno, the Carthaginian navigator who undertook a voyage along the west coast of Africa about 500 BC. In his work Periplous he tells of hearing stories of underground dwellers who were superior in intelligence to other men and ‘ran swifter than horses’ when any attempts were made to follow them into their tunnels. (As we shall see later, there is a strong tradition that a tunnel to Agharti runs from Africa.)
Plato, the great historian of lost Atlantis, also speaks of mysterious passageways in and around the mighty continent, ‘tunnels both broad and narrow, in the interior of the earth’. He further mentions a great ruler ‘who sits in the centre, on the navel of the earth; and he is the interpreter of religion to all mankind’. The legend of Atlantis is, in fact, inextricably entwined with that of Agharti, as we shall find when we discuss the early history of South America and the tunnel ‘bridge’ between the American continent and Africa.
The Roman, Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny), makes reference to subterranean dwellers who had originally fled underground after the destruction of Atlantis, in his Natural History. However, unlike his predecessors, he credits them with very little intelligence, as since the cataclysm they ‘have fallen below the level of human civilization, if we can believe what is said’. Gaius Plinius does believe, though, that these Troglodytes have hidden in their tunnels a ‘great, ancient treasure’.
Talk of hidden treasure naturally attracted the attention of many rulers, and the infamous Roman Emperor Nero actually sent out expeditions to try and locate these hidden hoards. Africa was believed, by common consent, to be the place where the treasure lay – and in a network of subterranean passages to be precise. For eight years between AD 60 until his death in AD 68, Nero dispatched several armies of legionaries to find these treasure tunnels. Fearful of the mad Emperor’s wrath, the soldiers frantically combed Africa from the coast to the burning deserts, preferring death rather than returning empty-handed. It was not until after they received news that Nero had died that the half-crazed remnants of the armies were able at last to go back home to Rome. Although they had found neither tunnels nor treasure – perhaps due in no small measure to the deliberately misleading directions they were given by the natives – this did not prevent the legend of a subterranean kingdom continuing to flourish.
Arguably the first detailed account of an actual visit to this ‘underworld’ appears in the remarkable collection of tales and reminiscences, De Nugis Curialium, assembled by the twelfth-century Welsh poet and historian, Walter Map, or Mapes. In his book he recounts the story of a visit by King Herla ‘one of the most ancient of British kings’ to just such a place. Some authorities have suggested it is merely a fantasy about Fairyland, but the description seems far more likely to be referring to an actual underground tunnel inhabited by a race of subterraneans.
In the tale, King Herla is approached one day by a handsome man who tells him: ‘I am the King over many kings and princes, and unnumbered and innumerable people.’ The stranger invites Herla to accompany him on a trip to his kingdom which, he says, is below ground. Walter Map’s narrative then continues:
They entered a cave in a high cliff, and after an interval of darkness, passed, in a light which seemed to proceed not from the sun or moon, but from a multitude of lamps, to the mansion of the king. This was as comely in every part as the palace of the Sun described by Naso [in Ovid’s Metamorphosis – Author].
King Herla enjoys his host’s hospitality for what seems like a short period of time and is then given leave to return to the surface world – suitably laden with gifts and presents. He is escorted ‘to the place in the tunnel where darkness began’ and the two monarchs take their farewell of each other. Walter Map then concludes:
Within a short space Herla arrived once more at the light of the sun and at his kingdom, where he accosted an old shepherd and asked for news of his Queen, naming her. The shepherd gazed at him with astonishment and said: ‘Sir, I can hardly understand your speech, for you are a Briton and I am a Saxon: but the name of that Queen I have never heard, save that they say that long ago there was a Queen of that name over the very ancient Britons, who was the wife of King Herla; and he, the old story says, disappeared at this very cliff, and was never seen on earth again, and it is now two hundred years since the Saxons took possession of this kingdom and drove out the old inhabitants!’ And at his words, the King who thought he had made a stay of but three days, could scarce conceal his amazement.
It is evident from this curious account, that King Herla had been below ground far longer than he imagined, although how literally we should take the time period suggested – two hundred years – is debatable! The specific mention of the form of lighting in the subterranean kingdom matches almost precisely those from other sources, and it is only to be regretted that the report does not tell us any more about the king and the impressive world in which he lived. For my part, I am satisfied that the tale does represent an encounter with underworld people.
Another legendary king who is associated with Agharti is Prester John, who in the twelfth century was said to ‘reign in splendour somewhere in the dim Orient’ according to Sabine Baring-Gould in his Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1894). Although some stories claim that Prester John was a mighty Christian Emperor who held sway over much of Central Asia, all attempts to contact him by the Christian kings and priests of Europe proved in vain. Despite this, marvellous tales about his kingdom, his powers and his wealth were current throughout Europe and for a time a letter was circulated which was claimed to have been written by the mighty ruler himself. Although it later proved spurious, it contained one strange sentence which has excited the attention of scholars. In it, Prester John says: ‘Near the wilderness, between barren mountains, is a subterranean world, which can only by chance be reached, for only
occasionally the earth gapes, and he who would descend must do it with precipitation, ere the earth closes again.’
This statement, plus the claim that Prester John was ‘the Lord of Lords, surpassing all under heaven in virtue, in riches and in power’, has given rise to the belief that he was actually the fabled ‘King of the World’ of Agharti. The belief was first expressed by Athanasius Kircher in his work Mundus Subterraneus (1665), in which he placed the heart of Prester John’s kingdom in Mongolia. Later supporters have cited evidence that the king’s empire embraced ‘three Indies and lands which extended beyond India’ to further the claim. Most recently, Andre Chaleil has observed in his book, Les Grands Inities de Notre Temps (1978): ‘After all, esotericists through the ages have talked of the subterranean kingdom of Agharti, and if one thinks of the Middle Ages, one can see that the enigmatic Prester John was none other than the entity ruling over the vast, unknowable kingdom.’
In a later one of his books, Cliff-Castles and Cave Dwellings in Europe (1911), Baring-Gould recounts another story, set a hundred years later, of a descent to a mysterious underworld. It is a puzzling tale, but nonetheless worth repeating:
A story is told of Father Conrad, the Confessor of St Elizabeth of Thuringia, ‘a barbarous, brutal man, who was sent into Germany by Gregory IX to burn and butcher heretics. The Pope called him his ‘dilectus filius’. In 1231 he was engaged in controversy with a heretical teacher, who, beaten in argument, according to Conrad’s account, offered to show him Christ and the Blessed Virgin, who with their own mouths would ratify the doctrine taught by the heretic. To this Conrad submitted, and was led into a cave in the mountains. After a long descent they entered a hall brilliantly illuminated, in which sat a King on a golden throne. The heretic prostrated himself in adoration, and bade Conrad do the same. But the latter drew forth a consecrated host and adjured the vision, whereupon all vanished.
The Lost World of Agharti- the Mystery of Vril Power Page 3