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Conspiracy file · Lemurian lore since 1905

Mt. Shasta

A 14,163-foot volcano in Northern California, sacred to the tribes around it long before anyone wrote it down. Since the early 1900s it has also been the reputed home of Lemurians, Ascended Masters and a hidden city called Telos.

Also known as Mount Shasta · Home of the Lemurians · Telos

On the recordTimelineFrom the comicsIn Paranoid American comicsSources & further reading

Mt. Shasta, a panel from a Paranoid American comic
From Secret Mystery School #1

The story

Mount Shasta is a stratovolcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range: 14,163 feet high and, by volume, the largest volcano in the Cascades. It last erupted about 3,200 years ago, and the U.S. Geological Survey still rates its threat as very high. Its upper slopes belong to the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

Long before the mystics arrived, the mountain was sacred to the Shasta, Karuk, Pit River, Wintu and other tribes, who still pray and hold ceremonies there. The Forest Service limits camping and large groups at Panther Meadows, where the Winnemem Wintu use a spring for healing ceremonies, partly because of the crowds the mountain's newer reputation brings.

That newer reputation started in print. Frederick Spencer Oliver's A Dweller on Two Planets (1905) put survivors of the sunken continent of Lemuria inside the mountain. A 1931 book from the Rosicrucian order AMORC spread the story, and Guy Ballard said he met the Count of Saint Germain on its slopes in 1930, which grew into the I AM movement. Later New Age writers gave the hidden city a name: Telos.

Memorandum for the recordSubject: Mt. Shasta

On the record

  1. Mount Shasta is a 14,163-foot stratovolcano, the most voluminous volcano in the Cascade Range. It last erupted about 3,200 years ago (USGS).
  2. The Shasta, Karuk, Pit River, Wintu and other tribes hold the mountain sacred and continue to practice their traditions there.
  3. Frederick Spencer Oliver's A Dweller on Two Planets, published in 1905, claimed that survivors of Lemuria lived in or on the mountain.
  4. In 1931 the Rosicrucian order AMORC published Lemuria, the Lost Continent of the Pacific by its leader H. Spencer Lewis, under the pen name Wishar S. Cerve.
  5. Guy Ballard said he met the Count of Saint Germain on the mountain in 1930. His Unveiled Mysteries (1934, as Godfré Ray King) launched the I AM movement.
  6. In United States v. Ballard (1944) the Supreme Court held that a jury could not be asked whether the movement's religious claims were true, only whether its leaders believed them.
  7. The Forest Service restricts camping, large groups and other uses at Panther Meadows to protect the meadow and a spring used in Native ceremonies.

The theory

  • Survivors of Lemuria live in a city called Telos inside the mountain, and tall robed figures come down to trade at night (Oliver, 1905; H. Spencer Lewis, 1931; later New Age writers).
  • Ascended Masters, led by Saint Germain, appear to the worthy on its slopes (Guy Ballard, Unveiled Mysteries, 1934).
  • The mountain is a spiritual power center, one of a handful of energy points on the planet.
  • Tunnels run from Shasta to other hidden cities around the world, and the lights and lenticular clouds seen over the peak are craft coming and going.

Timeline

  1. c. 1200 BCMount Shasta's most recent known eruption, about 3,200 years ago
  2. 1864Zoologist Philip Sclater names "Lemuria", a sunken land bridge to explain lemur fossils
  3. 1888Helena Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine makes Lemuria the home of an earlier human race
  4. 1905A Dweller on Two Planets puts Lemurian survivors at Mount Shasta
  5. 1930Guy Ballard says he meets Saint Germain on the mountain
  6. 1931AMORC publishes Lemuria, the Lost Continent of the Pacific
  7. 1934Unveiled Mysteries launches the I AM movement
  8. 1944United States v. Ballard reaches the Supreme Court

From the comics

Panels straight from the page. Click one to read it full size.

From Secret Mystery School #1 · Pages 1, 3

Welcome to Mt. Shasta

An archaeology field trip to Mount Shasta, with one student on mushrooms and another who did the reading. Everything they repeat about the mountain is real lore: sacred to the tribes who live around it, and home, the mystics say, to a hidden city of survivors from Lemuria.

Welcome to Mt. Shasta, 1 of 5
Welcome to Mt. Shasta, 2 of 5 Welcome to Mt. Shasta, 3 of 5
Welcome to Mt. Shasta, 4 of 5 Welcome to Mt. Shasta, 5 of 5
  1. Sacred place: the Shasta, Karuk, Pit River, Wintu and other tribes hold the mountain sacred and still hold ceremonies there. The Forest Service restricts camping and use at Panther Meadows, where the Winnemem Wintu use a spring for healing ceremonies.
  2. The underground civilization goes back to Frederick Spencer Oliver's A Dweller on Two Planets (1905) and a 1931 book by Rosicrucian leader H. Spencer Lewis, writing as Wishar S. Cerve. Later New Age writers named the city Telos.
  3. Lemuria started as 19th-century zoology: a land bridge proposed in 1864 to explain lemur fossils in Madagascar and India. Plate tectonics retired it; Theosophy kept it, as the home of a lost race.

Get the evidence

In Paranoid American comics

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