The Great Year and the Rebirth of Civilization (III)
Part 3 | The Younger Dryas: A Global Baptism By Water
This is the third in a six-part series, which is extracted from the extended Conclusion essay that finishes my new book, The Coming World Nation. If you missed Part 1 or Part 2, go back and read those first:
The Younger Dryas: A Global Baptism by Water
As we discover, there is a direct alignment in the frameworks of Dawkins and Misra regarding the existence of two Armageddon-like transition periods within the Great Year supercycle, one equating to a global “baptism by water” and the other to a global “baptism by fire”. The baptism by water or “Kataklysmos” occurs at the cycle's midpoint, coinciding with the summer solstice moving into alignment with the Sagittarius-Scorpio cusp. Astronomically, this event occurred approximately 12,900 years ago (10,900 BC), a date of important historical significance: it marks the sudden onset of the Younger Dryas climatic period, when a miniature ice age erupted whose characteristics closely match the archetypal themes of a “baptism by water".
To understand the significance of the Younger Dryas, we have to first go back and investigate the historical timing of the last Ice Age, which achieved its Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) between 26,500 and 19,000 years ago. During this period, vast ice sheets covered much of North America, Europe, and Asia. This condition lasted until approximately 15,000 years ago, when the Earth’s climate began it transition out of this glacial freeze, entering a period of warming known as the Bølling-Allerød interstadial. This warming period lasted for over two thousand years, before suddenly and unexpectedly reversing. About 12,900 years ago, the Earth returned suddenly to near-glacial conditions, with global temperatures plunging by as much as 10–15°C in some regions. This dramatic climatic episode lasted for about 1,200 years and represents one of the most abrupt and severe climate reversals in the Earth's recent geological history.
In his book Yuga Shift, Misra discusses how this period of dramatic global cooling first began, writing that “in 2007, a team of international scientists led by Richard B. Firestone found compelling evidence that the earth was bombarded by multiple fragments of a giant disintegrating comet nearly 12,900 years ago (c.10,900 BCE), which destabilized the Laurentide Ice Sheet and triggered the Younger Dryas cooling.” This catastrophic event launched a millennia-long period of cataclysms and hardship - just as Misra’s model predicted, with a series of subsequent cometary impacts striking the Earth in periodic increments throughout the Younger Dryas, each bringing its own set of environmental calamities, including at least one global deluge event.
The calamitous environment of the Younger Dryas perfectly matches the archetypal themes of a global “baptism by water” or “Kataklysmos", as described in the frameworks of Dawkins and Misra. Surely, it is no coincidence that the Younger Dryas’ rapid emergence occurred at the precise moment that the summer solstice moved into alignment with the galactic center, marking the midpoint of the Great Year supercycle. It also cannot be a mere coincidence that the Younger Dryas cooling period ensued for approximately 1200 years: the exact duration of time predicted by Misra’s model for the Kataklysmos period of cosmic purging to occur.
The Younger Dryas came to an abrupt conclusion around 9700 BC, the exact moment when the Kataklysmos phase of the Great Year would have ended and the Treta Yuga begun. In terms of climate, this historical period marks the beginning of the Holocene, when global temperatures increased drastically - particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, where temperatures increased between 18–27°F in a relatively short period of time. Accompanying this global warming trend was a significant increase in sea levels, with water tables rising worldwide between 33 and 66 feet. Many coastal regions, once heavily populated, would have been submerged during this period, forcing the mass migrations of peoples.
The Earth took on its present form at the conclusion of the Younger Dryas, setting the stage for a new phase of human evolution to occur - this transition coinciding with the Great Year moving into a new half-cycle.
The historical moment when scientists say that the Younger Dryas came to its abrupt end - ~9700 BC - is significant not only because it aligns with the world's transition out of the Kataklysmos phase of the Great Year and into the Treta Yuga, but also because it matches Plato’s account of the sinking of Atlantis. According to him, an island continent in the Atlantic Ocean catastrophically sank around 9600 BC, taking with it the capital city of what had once been a powerful, globally distributed empire.
Manly P. Hall teaches that Plato’s account of Atlantis’s demise was given as a deliberate blend of historical truth, mythic allegory, and philosophical cypher. By implication, it should not be viewed as an entirely factual historical account, but rather as a truthful historical depiction filtered through the lens of philosophy and myth, with numerous layers of concealed information embedded within its description. The esoteric aspect of Plato’s account is particularly noticeable when you factor in his physical description of Atlantis: as Hall has demonstrated in works like Atlantis: An Interpretation (1946), the numbers used Plato’s description of Atlantis have a qabalistic quality to them, encoding important information about metaphysics that only fellow initiates of the Mysteries or learned students of esoteric philosophy can decipher.
While there are indeed mythic and allegorical aspects to Plato's account of Atlantis, the core idea he puts forward about the sinking of an island continent in the Atlantic and the destruction of a once-powerful maritime empire does appear to be factual, with similar accounts preserved in the myths and legends of nearly all ancient cultures. The legacy of Atlantis was most prominently preserved in the ancient Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica and in the early dynasties of Egypt. According to Hall, these two civilization groups originated as offshoots of the primordial Atlantean race, each founded by refugees fleeing the destruction of their native homeland. The myths of both civilizations more-or-less admit to this, with each stating in no uncertain terms that their culture was originally established by descendants of an older parent civilization that had been destroyed in a cataclysm. The similarities they share in culture, architecture, and racial characteristics also support the theory that both were derived from a single parent civilization.
From a geological standpoint, there is evidence to suggest that an Atlantean island-continent similar to that described by Plato may have indeed once existed in the mid-Atlantic region, with the present-day Azores islands being the last remaining remnants of a landmass once approximating the size of Ireland. Hall informs us that this island-continent had originally been part of a yet greater continental structure, which sank gradually over a long period of time. The great cataclysms associated with the ending of the Younger Dryas in 9600 BC provided the final death blow to this sinking landmass, marking the end of the Atlantean era.
To explain how an island can physically disappeared, a central topic of concern is the accuracy of modern geology’s favored theory about plate tectonics: is the present continental distribution best explained by the current theory of continental drift or are there alternate mechanisms in the Earth’s crust that allow for landmasses to rise and fall? Theosophical scholar David Pratt has put forward a convincing critique of plate tectonics, arguing that continental landmasses tend to rise and fall over long periods of time rather than drift - an idea aligning with the teachings of esoteric philosophy.
In the conclusion to a long article on the topic titled “Sunken Continents vs. Continental Drift,” published on his website (davidpratt.info), Pratt writes: “Plate tectonics certainly faces some overwhelming problems. Far from being a simple, elegant, all-embracing global theory, it is confronted with a multitude of observational anomalies, and has had to be patched up with a complex variety of ad-hoc modifications and auxiliary hypotheses. The existence of deep continental roots and the absence of a continuous, global asthenosphere to ‘lubricate’ plate motions, have rendered the classical model of plate movements untenable. There is no consensus on the thickness of the ‘plates’ and no certainty as to the forces responsible for their supposed movement. The hypotheses of large-scale continental drift, seafloor spreading and subduction, and the relative youth of the oceanic crust are contradicted by a considerable volume of data. Evidence for substantial vertical crustal movements and for significant amounts of submerged continental crust in the present-day oceans poses another major challenge to plate tectonics. Such evidence provides increasing confirmation of the periodic alternation of land and sea taught by theosophy.”
Pratt’s critiques of plate tectonics open the door for an alternate explanation to be considered, one that aligns with the esoteric teachings of Hall and Blavatsky. As Pratt explains: “According to modern theosophy, Poseidonis - Plato’s ‘Atlantis’ - was an island about the size of Ireland, situated in the Atlantic Ocean opposite the strait of Gibraltar, and sank in a major cataclysm in 9565 BC. Former exploration geologist Christian O’Brien believes that Poseidonis was a large mid-Atlantic ridge island centred on the Azores. By contouring the seabed, he found that the Azores were separated and surrounded by a net of submarine valleys that had all the hallmarks of having once been river valleys on the surface. He concluded that the island had originally measured 720 km across from east to west, and 480 km from north to south, with high mountain ranges rising over 3660 metres above sea level. Before or during its submergence, it tilted by about 0.4° with the result that the south coast sank about 3355 metres but the north coast only some 1830 metres. Only the mountain peaks remained above the waters, and now form the nine volcanic islands of the Azores. O’Brien thinks the island could have sunk within a period of a few years or even months, and points out that six areas of hot spring fields (associated with volcanic disturbances) are known in the mid-Atlantic ridge area, and four of them lie in the Kane-Atlantis area close to the Azores.”
This new research makes the sinking of Atlantis a realistic possibility, particularly when we consider Plato’s statement that “prodigious earthquakes and deluges” accompanied the event, with the Atlantic island “absorbed in the sea, becoming entirely disappeared.” But while we may have discovered the geological mechanism behind Atlantis’s disappearance, the specific trigger event that caused its sinking remains a mystery. Other mysterious circumstances also accompany this important historical date, such the climate's sudden shift out of the Younger Dryas cooling period and into the warmer Holocene era. The construction of the Göbekli Tepe temple complex in present-day Turkey also occurred around this date: this massive site was built by an unknown culture and then deliberately buried, as if to preserve it for future discovery. Its burial took place around 9600 BC, the same date marking the end of the Younger Dryas, the sinking of Atlantis, and the Great Year's transition into the Treta Yuga.
Graham Hancock believes that one of the primary functions of the Göbekli Tepe temple complex was to commemorate a “technology transfer” between the remnants of a declining high civilization of prehistory and the comparatively primitive tribal peoples of ancient Mesopotamia. This idea is supported by ancient myths from the region, which state that after a previous race of humans was wiped out by the gods in a great cataclysm, seven sages led by the god-man Oannes emerged out of the sea, bring knowledge of agriculture, architecture, and astronomy to the primitive peoples of the Fertile Crescent.
Myths from Egypt, Central America, Asia, and other regions around the world offer similar accounts: none of these cultures claimed to have been the original inventors of their own civilization; instead, each declared that the most noble aspects of their civilization had been bestowed to their primitive ancestors by a previous race whose homeland had been destroyed in a great cataclysm. In the case of Mesopotamia, historical records show that agriculture did indeed begin just after Göbekli Tepe was built, suggesting that the site may have indeed been built to commemorate the transfer of technology between the doomed Atlanteans and the primitive tribes existing at the periphery of their empire, with the former disappearing from Earth after first planting the seed of cultural development within the latter.
A particularly intriguing aspect of the Göbekli Tepe mystery involves the carvings contained on one of the stone pillars unearthed at the site: the so-called “Vulture Stone”. According to Dr. Martin Sweatman, the carvings on this pillar indicate the sun’s alignment with the cusp of Sagittarius-Scorpio.
As previously discussed, the Sagittarius-Scorpio cusp marks the point on the ecliptic that intersects with the position of the galactic center. Presuming that the artwork on this recovered artifact is referencing the summer solstice sun, a key date in the cycle of the Great Year is being deliberately indicated - 10,900 BC, the date when the Younger Dryas / Kataklymos phase of the Great Year first began.
Archeological evidence indicates that construction on the Göbekli Tepe temple complex initially began 1200 years later, around 9600 BC - when the Younger Dryas came to its abrupt end. The Vulture Stone and the temple itself thus signify the two bookends of the Kataklysmos phase of the Great Year supercycle, marking the occasion when the planet underwent an archetypal “baptism by water.”
