Aleister Crowley - The Lost Continent

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A political satire and / or mystic treatise and / or deliberately obscure account of the O.T.O.

system of sexual magick, under the guise of an account of Atlantis.

Owes more than a little to Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race.

PDF Creator Stanton Studios www.bonatus.com Find more books

LIBER

THE LOST CONTINENT

Aleister Crowley

FORWARD

"In particular there is a sort of novel, "The Lost Continent", purporting to give an account of

the civilization of Atlantis. I sometimes feel that this lacks artistic unity. At times it is a fantas-

tic rhapsody describing my ideals of Utopian society; but some passages are a satire on the

conditions of our existing civilization, while others convey hints of certain profound magical

secrets, or anticipations of discoveries in science."

- Crowley, writing of the Summer of 1913 e.v. from Confessions, p. 730.

PREFACE

Last year I was chosen to succeed the venerable K-Z - who had it in his mind to die, that is, to

join Them in Venus, as one of the Seven Heirs of Atlantis, and I have been appointed to

declare, so far as may found possible, the truth about that mysterious lost land. Of course, no

more than one seventh of the wisdom is ever confided to one of the Seven, and the Seven meet

in council but once in every thirty-three years. But its preservation is guaranteed by the inter-

locked systems of "dreaming true" and of "preparation of the antinomy." The former almost

explains itself; the latter is almost inconceivable to normal man. Its essence is to train a man to

be anything by training him to be its opposite. At the end of anything, think they, it turns out to

be its opposite, and that opposite is thus mastered without having been soiled by the labours of

the student, and without the false impressions of early learning being left upon the mind.

I myself, for example, had unknowingly been trained to record these observations by the life of

a butterfly. All my impressions came clear on the soft wax of my brain; I had never worried

because the scratch on the wax in no way resembled the sound it represented. In other words, I

observed perfectly because I never knew that I was observing. So, if you pay sufficient atten-

tion to your heart, you will make it palpitate.

I accordingly proceed to a description of the country.

"Aleister Crowley"

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OF THE PLAINS BENEATH ATLAS,

AND ITS SERVILE RACE

Atlas is the true name of this archipelago - continent is an altogether false term, for every

"house" or mountain peak was cut from its fellows by natural, though often very narrow water-

ways. The African Atlas is a mere offshoot of the range. It was the true Atlas that supported the

ancient world by its moral and magical strength, and hence the name of the fabled globe-

bearer. The root is the Lemurian "Tla" or "Tlas", black, for reasons which will appear in due

course. "A" is the feminine prefix, derived from the shape of the mouth when uttering the

sound. "Black woman" is therefore as near a translation as one can give in English; the Latin

has a closer equivalent.

The mountains are cut off, not only from each other by the channels of the sea, but from the

plains at their feet by cliffs naturally or artificially smoothed and undercut for at least thirty

feet on every side in order to make access impossible.

These plains had been made flat by generations of labour. Vines and fruit-trees growing only

on the upper slopes, they were devoted principally to corn, and to grass pastures for the

amphibian herds of Atlas. This corn was of a kind now unknown, flourishing in sea-water, and

the periodical flood-tides served the same purpose as the Nile in Egypt. Enormous floating

stages of spongy rock - no trees of any kind grew anywhere on the plains so wood was

unknown - supported the villages. These were inhabited by a type of man similar to the modern

Caucasian race. They were not permitted to use any of the food of their masters, neither the

corn, nor the amphibians, nor the vast supplies of shellfish, but were fed by what they called

"bread from heaven," which indeed came down from the mountains, being the whole of their

refuse of every kind. The whole population was put to perpetual hard labour. The young and

active tended the amphibians, grew the corn, collected the shell-fish, gathered the "bread from

heaven" for their elders, and were compelled to reproduce their kind. At twenty they were con-

sidered strong enough for the factory, where they worked in gangs on a machine combining the

features of our pump and treadmill for sixteen hours of the twentyfour. This machine supplied

Atlas with its "ZRO"[2Or Zra'd. The ZR is drawled slowly; the the lips are suddenly curled back in a

sneering snarl, and the vowel sharply and forcibly uttered. It is disputed whether this word is connected

with the Sanscrit SRI, holy.]or "power," of which I shall speak presently. Any worker showing

even temporary weakness was transferred to the phosphorus works, where he was sure to die

within a few months. Phosphorus was a prime necessity of Atlas; however, it was not used in

its red or yellow forms, but in a third allotrope, a blue-black or rather violet-black substance,

only known in powder finer than precipitated gold, harder than diamond, eleven times heavier

than yellow phosphorus, quite incombustible, and so shockingly poisonous that, in spite of

every precaution, an ounce of it cost the lives (on an average) of some two hundred and fifty

men. Of its properties I shall speak later.

The people were left in utmost slavery and ignorance by the wise counsel of the first of the phi-

losophers of Atlas, who had written: "An empty brain is a threat to Society." He had conse-

quently instituted a system of mental culture, comprising two parts:

[#1] There were four (some say five) distinct races, each having several sub-races. But the main characteristics

were the same. some alleged the Portuguese and the English to be survivals of this or kindred stock.

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1. As a basis, a mass of useless disconnected facts.

2. A superstructure of lies.

Part 1 was compulsory; the people then took Part 2 without protest.[3] The same danger to soci-

ety in our own time has been forseen, and an identical remedy discovered and applied in compulsory edu-

cation and cheap newspapers.

The language of the plains was simple but profuse. They had few nouns and fewer verbs. "To

work again" (there was no word for "to work" simply), "to eat again," "to break the law" (no

word for "to break the law again"), "to come from without," "to find light" ("i.e. "to go to the

phosphorus factory) were almost the only verbs used by adults. The young men and women

had a verb-language yet simpler, and of degraded coarseness. All had, however, an extraordi-

nary wealth of adjectives, most of them meaningless, as attached to no noun ideas, and a great

quantity of abstract nouns such as "Liberty," "Progress," without which no refined inhabitant

could consider a sentence complete. He would introduce them into a discussion on the most

material subjects. "The immoral snub-nose," "the unprogressive teeth," "lascivious music,"

"reactionary eyebrows" - such were phrases familiar to all."To eat again, to sleep again, to

work again, to find the light - that is Liberty, that is Progress" was a proverb common in every

mouth.

The religion of the people was Protestant Christianity in all essentials, but with an even closer

dependence upon God. They asserted its formulae, without attaching any meaning to the

words, in a manner both reverent and passionate. Sexual life was entirely forbidden to the

workers, a single breach implying relegation to the phosphorus works.

In every field was, however, an enormous tablet of rock,carved on one side with a representa-

tion of the three stages of life: the fields, the labour mill, the factory; and on the other side with

these words: "To enter Atlas, fly." Beneath this an elaborate series of graphic pictures showed

how to acquire the art of flying. During all the generations of Atlas, not one man had been

known to take advantage of these instructions.

The principal fear of the populace was a variation of any kind from routine. For any such the

people had one word only, though this word changed its annotation in different centuries.

"Witchcraft," "Heresy," "Madness," "Bad Form," "Sex-Perversion," "Black Magic" were its

principal shapes in the last four thousand years of the dominion of Atlas.

Sneezing, idleness, smiling, were regarded as premonitory. Any cessation from speech, even

for a moment to take breath, was considered highly dangerous. The wish to be alone was worse

than all; the delinquent would be seized by his fellows, and either killed outright or thrust into

the compound of the phosphorus factory, from which there was no egress.

The habits of the people were incredibly disgusting. Their principal relaxations were art, music

and the drama, in which they could show achievement hardly inferior to that of Henry Arthur

Jones, Pinero, Lehar, George Dance, Luke Fildes, and Thomas Sidney Cooper.

Of medicine they were happily ignorant. The outdoor life in that equable climate bred strong

youths and maidens, and the first symptoms of illness in a worker was held to impair his effi-

ciency and qualify him for the phosphorous factory. Wages were permanently high, and as

there were no merchants even of alcohol, whose use was forbidden, every man saved all his

earnings, and died rich. At his death his savings went back to the community. Taxation was

consequently unnecessary. Clothes were unnecessary and unknown, and the "bread from

heaven" was the "free gift of God." The dead were thrown to the amphibians.

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Each man built his own shelter of the rough stone sponge which abounded. The word

"house" was used only in Atlas; the servile race called its huts "Hloklost" (equivalent to

the English word "home"). Discontent was absolutely unknown. It had not been consid-

ered necessary to prohibit traffic with foreign countries, as the inhabitants of such were

esteemed barbarians. Had a ship landed men, they would have been murdered to a man,

supposing that Atlas had permitted any approach to its shores. That it hindered such,

and by infallible means, was due to other considerations, whose nature will form the

subject of a subsequent chapter.

This then is the nature of the plains beneath Atlas, and the character of the servile race.

OF THE RACE OF ATLAS

In the city or "house" which was formed from the crest of every mountain, dwelt a race not

greatly superior in height to our own, but of vaster frame. The bulk and strength of the bear is

not inappropriate as a simile for the lower classes; the higher had the enormous chest and

shoulders and the lean haunches of the lion. This strength gave an infallible beauty, made mon-

strous by their most inexorable law, that every child who developed no special feature in the

first seven years should be sacrificed to the Gods. This special feature might be a nose of pro-

digious size, hands and wrists of gigantic strength, a gorilla jaw, an elephant ear - or any of

these might entitle its owner to life:[4 Gautama Buddha was the reincarnation or legend of a previous

Buddha who was a missionary from Atlas, hence the account of his immovable neck, the ears that he could

fold over his face, and other monstrous details.]for in all such variations from the normal they per-

ceived the possibility of a development of the race. Men and women were hairy as the ourang-

outang and all were closely shaven from head to foot. It had been found that this practice

developed tactile sensibility. It was also done in reverence to the "Living Atla," of which more

in its place.

The lower class were few in number. Its function was to superintend the servile race, to bring

the food of the children to the banqueting-hall, to remove the same, to attend to the disposition

of the "light-screens," to ensure the continuance of the race by the begetting, bearing and nour-

ishing of the children.

The priestly class was concerned with the further preparation of the Zro supplied by the labour-

mills, and its impregnation with phosphorus. This class had much leisure for "work," a subject

to be explained later.

The High Priests and High Priestesses were restricted in number to eleven times thirty-three in

any one "house." To them were entrusted the final secrets of Atlas, and to them was confided

the conduct of the experiments in which every will was bound up.[5] There was a Governor of

these, of whose name, nature and function I am not permitted to speak.

The colour of the Atlanteans was very various, though the hair was invariably of a fiery chest-

nut with bluish reflections. One might see women whiter than Aphrodite, others tawny as

Cleopatra, others yellow as Tu-Chi, others of a strange, subtle blue like the tattooed faces of

Chin women, others again red as copper. Green was however a prohibited hue for women, and

red was not liked in men. Violet was rare, but highly prized, and children born of that colour

were specially reared by the High Priestesses.

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However, in one part of the body all the women were perfectly black with a blackness no negro

can equal; from this circumstance comes the name Atlas. It is absurdly attributed by some

authors to the deposit of excess of phosphorus in the Zro. I need only point out that the mark

existed long before the discovery of black phosphorus. It is evidently a racial stigma. It was the

birth of a girl child without this mark which raised her mother to the rank of goddess, and

ended the terrestrial adventure of the Atlanteans, as will presently appear.

Of the ethics of this people little need be said. Their word for "right" is "phph" made by the

blowing with the jaw drawn sharply across from left to right, thus meaning "a spiral life con-

trary to the course of the Sun." We may assume it as "contrary." "Whatever is, is wrong" seems

to have been their first principle. Legs were "wrong" because they only carry you five miles in

the hour: let us refuse to walk; let us ride horseback. So the horse is "wrong" compared to the

train and the motor-car; and these are "wrong" to the aeroplane. If speed had been the

Atlantean's object, he would have thought aeroplanes "wrong" and all else too, so long as the

speed of light was not surpassed by him.

Curious survivals of these laws are found in the Jewish transcript of the Egyptian code, which

they, being a slave race, interpreted in the reverse manner.

"Thou shalt not make any graven image." Every male child on attaining manhood, had a

graven image given him to worship, a miracle-working image, whose principle exploits he

would tattoo upon it.

"Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy." The Atlantean kept one day in seven for all

purposes unconnected with his principle task.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery." Though the Atlanteans married, intercourse with the wife

was the only act forbidden.

"Honour thy father and thy mother." On the contrary, they worshipped their children, as if to

say: "This is the God whom I have made in my own likeness."

Similarly, there is one exception and one only to the rule of silence. It is the utterance of the

'Name' which it is death to pronounce. This word was constantly in their mouths; it is "Zcrra",

a sort of venomous throat-gargling. Hence, possibly the Gaelic "Scurr" "speak," English

"Scaur" or "Scar" in Yorkshire and the Pennines. "Zcrra" is also the name of the "High House,"

and of the graven image referred to above.

Others traces may be found in folklore; some mere superstitions. Thus the correct number for a

banquet was thirteen, because if there were only one more sign in the Zodiac, the year would

be a month longer, and one would have more time "for work." This is probably a debased

Egyptian notion. Atlanteans knew better than anyone that the Zodiac is only an arbitrary divi-

sion. Still it may be laid down that the impossible never daunted Atlas. If one said, "Two and

two make Four" his thought would be "Yes, damn it!"[6] One of the most brilliant children commit-

ted suicide on learning that he could not move his upper jaw. This boy is one of the eleven heroes who had

statues in the High House. And the Atlantean for "sorrow" in its ultimate sense ("dukka" or

"weltschmerz") is to wrench at the upper jaw.

I now explain the language of Atlas. The third and greatest of their philosophers saw that

speech had wrought more harm than good, and he consequently instituted a peculiar rite. Two

men were chosen by lot to preserve the language, which, by the way, consisted of monosylla-

bles only, two hundred and fourteen in number, to each of which was attached a diacritical ges-

ture, usually ideographic.

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Thus "wrong" is given as "phph" moving the jaw from right to left. Wiping the brow with

"phph" means "hot," hollowing the hands over the mouth "fire," striking the throat "to die;" so

that each "radical" may have hundreds of gesture-derivatives. Grammar, by the way, hardly

existed, the quick apprehension of the Atlanteans rendering it unnecessary.

These two men then departed to a cavern on the side of the mountain just above the cliff, and

there for a year they remained, speaking the language and carving it symbolically upon the

rock. At the end of the year they returned; the elder is sacrificed and the younger returns with a

volunteer, usually one who wishes to expiate a fault, and teaches him the language. During his

visit he observes whether any new thing needs a name, and if so he invents it, and adds it to the

language. This process continued to the end. The rest of the people abandoned altogether the

use of speech, only a few years' practice enabling them to dispense with the radicle. They then

sought to do without gesture, and in eight generations the difficulty was conquered, and telep-

athy[7 This system of communication has great advantages over any other. It is independent of distance,

and dependent on the will of the transmitter. Telepathic messages could not be "tapped" or miscarry in

any way.]established.

Research then devoted itself to the task of doing without thought; this will be discussed in

detail in the proper place. There was also a "listener," three men who took turns to sit upon the

highest peak, above the "light-screens," and whose duty it was to give the alarm if any noise

disturbed Atlas. On their report that High Priest charged with active governorship would take

steps to ascertain and destroy the cause.

The "light-screens" spoken of were a contrivance of laminae of a certain spar such that the

light and heat of the Sun were completely cut off, not by opacity, but by what we call "interfer-

ence." In this way other subtle rays of the Sun entered the "house," these rays being supposed

to be necessary to life. These matters were the subjects of the deepest controversy. Some held

that these rays themselves were injurious and should be excluded. Others considered that the

light-screens should be put in position during moonlight, instead of being opened at sunset, as

was the custom. This, however, was never attempted, the great mass of the people being

devoted to the Moon. Others wished full sunlight, the aim of Atlas being (they thought) to

reach the Sun. But this theory contradicted the prime axiom of attaining things through their

opposites, and was only held by the lower classes, who were not initiated into this doctrine.

The "houses" of Atlas were carved from the living rock by the action of Zro in its seventh pre-

cipitation. Enormously solid, the walls were lofty and smoother than glass, though the pave-

ments were rough and broken almost everywhere for a reason which I am not permitted to

disclose. The passages were invariably narrow, so that two persons could never pass each

other. When two met, it was the law to greet by joining in "work" and then going away

together on their separate errands, or passing one above the other. This was done purposely, so

as to remind every man of his duty to Atlas on every occasion on which he might meet a fel-

low-citizen.

The Banqueting-Hall of the children was usually very large. The furniture, which had been

brought by the first colonists, and gradually disused by adults, never needed repair. A vast

open doorway facing North opened on the mountainside on to the vineyards and orchards, the

meadows and gardens, in which the children passed their time. Suckled by the mother for three

months only, the child was then already able to nourish itself on the bread and wine, and on the

flesh of the amphibious herds, of which there were several kinds; one a piglike animal with

flesh resembling wild duck, another a sort of amatee tasting like salmon, its fat being some-

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