Atlantis and the Cycles of Time: Prophecies, Traditions, and Occult RevelationsJoscelyn Godwin
Inner Traditions, November 2010
ISBN: 978-1594772627
“As absorbing as it is erudite, both comprehensive and profound, essential as a reference work, and quintessential to grasp the depth and breadth of a grievously misunderstood, perennially fascinating, and perhaps critical subject, Atlantis and the Cycles of Time is a unique work: the ‘compleat’ Atlantis.”
--John Anthony West, author of Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt
--John Anthony West, author of Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt
The Atlantis story starts with the account given in Plato's Dialogues, of the destruction of a land "beyond the Pillars of Hercules". Many of the great occultists and esotericists of the 19th and 20th centuries wrote at length on their theories of Atlantis-about its high culture, its possible location, its ultimate demise, and their predictions of a return to Atlantean enlightenment or the downfall of modern society.
Godwin looks at those writers who have attempted to identify this with a particular geographical location in a specific historical era. Godwin presents a fascinating range of interpretations from texts dating back to the seventeenth century which place a physical, geographical Atlantis anywhere from Sweden to the Arctic, and from the Sahara Desert to Bolivia. The book summarizes materials published and unpublished that would be almost impossible for the non-scholar to ever find.
Godwin is one of the most credible esoteric scholars writing today. His analysis of primary, secondary and even fringe sources of Atlantology are explored in this most readable study. This book proves to be a scholarly and detailed account of the way that the Atlantis myth has provided an important and formative influence on the whole of Western occult thought.
JOSCELYN GODWIN was born in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, England on January 16, 1945. He was educated as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, then at Radley College (Music Scholar), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (Music Scholar; B.A., 1965, Mus. B., 1966, M.A. 1969). Coming to the USA in 1966, he did graduate work in Musicology at Cornell University and taught at Cleveland State University for two years before coming to the Colgate University Music Departmen in 1971. He has taught at Colgate ever since.
