by Ernest L. Norman

Dear Fellow Student: I know you will appreciate with me the fact that inasmuch as you have lived a hundred or possibly a thousand lifetimes upon the planet earth, that it would be physically impossible to give you a verbatim description of all of these lives, nor would it serve a purpose, other than perhaps satisfy some idle curiosity. Then, too, it is quite possible that we have little skeletons in the closet of our past lives which would embarrass us should they be dragged forth into the limelight.

Our concern is only with those lifetimes in which certain physical or mental karma conditions or blocks have been inflected into the psychic structures and are causing present-day difficulties. However, it is most important and vital so that as you are now occupying in this present-day world a certain relative sphere of consciousness and inasmuch as this can be said to be the place of working out or elimination, we must understand not only your own position, but a broad and universal concept of the world, its evolutions, and the future destiny of mankind upon this planet.

So, therefore, I will give you something of a synopsis or a presentation of such various continuities and appearances of yourself in past lifetimes that you can most easily trace the pattern of your own evolutions and thus combine with other concepts which you will gather from the lesson course, and other sources, much wisdom which will not only broaden your mental horizon but will considerably aid and abet the process of therapy and adjustment.

There are many sources of information of past civilizations and the coming and going of mankind upon the face of the earth. Accounts are written in the pyramids and tombs of Egypt. They are contained to a large extent in the Vedic transcripts which form the basic concept of Hinduism. There is much wisdom gained by the teachings of the ancient Hellenic Avatars, such as Plato and Socrates, and if the person is an earnest seeker he can, from numerous places, gather much pertinent and vital information.

However, for convenience sake, and inasmuch as these things are written in the Bible, we shall use that book for a sort of reference. The prophets of the Old Testament as well as those of the New Testament gave much wisdom and knowledge to our present-day understanding; and it is generally conceded by one and all that this is a highly-advanced technocracy, an age of atoms and electrons, and a synthetic age which has produced not only an abundance of many miraculous things, but has literally showered our daily lives with various contrivances and conveniences which, by their original intent, were meant to serve us usefully.

Yet in the very nature and complexities of this technocracy, it has become as a two-edged sword, and the general way of life, the adaptability and the mental positions of the hundreds of millions of citizens in our present-day world have, as yet, not adapted unto themselves a sufficient psychology to compensate for the numerous pressures, compromises and adjustments which are necessary to live in this complex civilization. Therefore, you can see for these reasons and others, too, which are most obvious, that you must indeed gain a wholesome perspective of your present position and the world in general.

In the opening chapter of Genesis, it states the Lord made the earth in six days, and on the seventh He rested. This is a spiritual parable which has suffered much and many derelictions, but actually referred to an astrophysical cycle wherein we can actually trace the written course of history for mankind for at least 160,000 years. This astrophysical cycle is called the Cycle of the Recessional in modern astrological nomenclature. It refers to a phenomenon wherein the sun, leading its little flock of planets along a great magnetic line of force extending from the central vortex of our universe; and also, as the earth, as in the case of the other planets revolving about the sun, are regularly intersecting and bisecting minor and major lines of force which are stemming out from this same vortex.

This is exactly the same principle which is used in the application of alternating current which turns the motors of our present-day industries – one of the ways in which the Infinite has of inflecting into our world or dimension of consciousness through the various energy structures known as atoms – certain vibratory energies which stem in along with these magnetic lines of force. These are dominating and controlling forces which have much to do with the general welfare and evolution of humanity as a whole. They also, to a large extent, are responsible for such evolutionary patterns wherein the earth itself, along with the planetary system, goes from one age to another.

These concepts were given to the earth at the beginning of the Lemurian Age or in the beginning of the first of the six days, which was 160,000 years ago; and this figure is obtained by adding up the six cycles of 25,000 years. In order to better understand the effect and the nature of this cycular phenomenon, we can visualize this great 25,000 year cycle as a circle, and we shall divide it up into twelve sections like we would cut a pie, each section representing a period of time of a little over 2,000 years duration. Using modern astrological terminology, we can start from Pisces and run through the twelve different sections or signs of the Zodiac back to Aquarius.

Aquarius is the sign wherein the figure of God places His right foot upon the earth and holds the horn of plenty, which He scatters upon the earth; and in the left hand, holds the trident which represents the Holy Trinity. The symbology, therefore, is that this Aquarian Age will be ruled directly from the inner consciousness through the hearts and minds of man, and that it will be, indeed, a Golden Rule Age, or the City of Jerusalem, a spiritual age where God actually rules the world and that man lives by the Golden Rule.

These minor cycles are divisions of about 2,000 years’ duration. You can also see, by studying history, that these various lesser cycles have had considerable influence in helping usher into the world certain civilizations or certain times wherein avatars or masters have appeared, just as in the case of Jesus.

Another point of reference contained in the Bible which concerns every seeker of truth in the present day is the prophecy which states that in the latter day, the Ten Tribes will be again gathered together. This, when combined with our knowledge of the ancient civilization of Lemuria, will give us a starting point where we can trace not only your own personal starting of your evolution, but to all other seekers of truth who are so interested in, not only solving their own difficulties, but in visualizing the emancipation of man into the future spiritual age.

We will begin, therefore, by adding up the six days as was mentioned in Genesis and the cycles of 25,000 years’ duration, and we will arrive at the figure about 160,000 years ago which was the starting place of the ancient city and civilization of Mu. Through legends, historical facts and various channels and works of numerous men such as Churchward, we have gained a rather factual description of that time and place. It began with a landing of a huge space ship which came from a great planet called Lemuria down closer to the central vortex of the universe. It contained among its passengers eleven Lemurians who were super-scientists or masters. They were tall men – eleven feet high, or more.

In these two great civilizations [Lemuria and Atlantis which followed], there were many, many, millions of people who had sat at the feet of different masters and avatars and had learned of great spiritual truths; and with the destruction, had passed on into spiritual worlds. Since that time, they have come down to the numerous and lesser civilizations upon the planet earth through more or less regular cycular appearances or reincarnations, being attracted into this world in certain spheres of time wherein certain spiritual concepts, under some avatar or savant were being re-instituted into that present time and place. Anyone who has longings, conscious memories, or feelings of affinity or the knowing of these ancient times, can actually know that they have been one of the many millions who perished in the great cataclysms.

You yourself, as many other seekers of truth, have come down through the times and ages from ancient Atlantis, through Egypt, India, Chaldea, China, Greece and even the so-called Dark or Middle Ages to your present time. You may remember the life to some extent on Atlantis; or it may have been just the starting point, the original causation for such karmic fears as fire or drowning. In the many succeeding reincarnations, these fears may or may not have been dissipated, or they may have been added to and strengthened by certain psychic shocks of such similar circumstances.

After the destruction of Atlantis at about 25,000 years ago, there were many of the peoples of that nation who had migrated or escaped into Egypt and after a period of time, Egypt grew and became one of the great and luminous spiritual civilizations of the past, and reached the climax of its ascendency under an Atlantean priest, or a descendent of the priest known as Osiris. The religious monotheology of the people of Lemuria, Atlantis and ancient Egypt was the worship of the one God who was called Amen Ra, and it was believed that His countenance shone forth upon the world from the sun. Thus it was that the sun was worshipped just as our present-day Christians worship various saints or images of saints; or they may actually visualize God as an entity, so that the people of these past ages saw the great universal and infinite God manifesting Himself in one way and direction through the shining and luminous orb of the sun which warmed the earth and was most necessary for all life which lived upon its surface.

India, too, and around the northern latitudes of India near the Mongolian Desert, another great civilization had descended from a spiritual city which is known in the present day as Shamballa. Much allure of the legendary nature is still attached to Eastern theosophies concerning Shamballa, and it closely paralleled, in many ways, the lives lived by the Lemurians and Atlanteans.

After the destruction of Shamballa and its disappearance more than half a million years ago, the remaining vestiges of that nation who were known as the Aryans migrated south into the plains of India. These Aryans were fair-skinned, blond-haired and blue-eyed and are one of the root races which exist today as the Nordic or Teutonic races, and they descended from the original inhabitants of this ancient civilization and still exist in some provinces of northern India and can be found around the country of Kashmir. It was these people, incidentally, who brought with them the Vedic transcript which is the basis for present-day pantheology of Hinduism: Brahma, who was the Giver of Light, or God; Vishnu, and Shiva, the destroyer. Vishnu was the Perpetuator of Life; and in this Holy Triad, there is a marked parallel and similarity to our present-day Christian doxology.

So thus it is, dear student, a presentation of past lives and epochs of time; like the tides of the ocean, these great civilizations have risen and fallen, and left behind them only legend, carvings in the rocks, or perhaps some buried temple in the far-off reaches of Central America. The pyramids of Egypt give mute testimony as the temples which lie in the shadows of those great structures speak silently of the pageantry of the past. The ancient City of Jerusalem has risen and fallen seven times, and yet lives today as a token and a symbology that here, too, a great man in a far-off time and place gave birth to life and hope for many people.

Excerpt from Tempus Invictus