(From Return of the Children of Light by Judith Bluestone Polich)

There is substantial evidence of cultures (known as the Olmec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya, the Tiahuanaco, and somewhat later the Inca) being seeded simultaniously in Mesoamerica and Peru. Highly evolved spiritually, these cultures were allegedly ruled by priest-kings and god-men to whom they trace their lineage, and all considered themselves children of kight.

Although most original manuscripts of ancient cultures found in Mesoamerica were destroyed by zealous Spanish clerics who considered these records pagan aberrations, a few survived this fanaticism. One of the most important, the Popol Vuhl, is considered to be the Bible of Mayan mythology. Others provide fragmentary information about the early people of Mesoamerica. For example, although perhaps later in time, the Books of Chilan Balam discuss the origin of the first inhabitants of the Yucatan, called Chanes or the "people of the Serpent", who allegedly came in boats with their leader Zamma in the year A.D. 219.

Zamma is described as the "Serpent of the East, a god-like man. He was said to be a powerful healer who, like the Christ figure, could cure by layin gon of the hands and revive the dead. In the myths and stories of the Yucatan region there are many references to the "people of the serpent". The serpents, sometimes called nagas, appear to make up an archaic mystery school with leaders considered to be spiritually powerful initiates. Some scholars believe that nagas were survivors of Atlantis and may have had extraterrestrial origins. Even today there are groups in Mesoamerica that trace their lineage to the legendary serpents, such as the Tacuate of the state of Oaxaca, who maintain a strong nagual tradition.

In this context, it is interesting to examine some of the various esoteric meanings of the word 'serpent'. The term sometimes refers to the kundalini energy (the yogic life force that lies coiled at the base of the spine until it is aroused and sent to the head to trigger enlightenment) that rises serpentlike up the human chakra system. A chakra, according to Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism, is a focal point where psychic forces and bodily funtions merge and interact. There are some 88,000 chakras in the body. Six major ones are located along the spinal column, and a seventh, called the crown chakra, is found at the top of the skull. The lowest of the seven is found at the base of the spine and is associated with the mysteries of divine potency attributed to the force of kundalini. This force is believed to be a cosmic energy that lies latent within every body and can be visualized as a serpent coiled at the base of the spine. Various yogic techniques can raise this energy up the spine, chakra by chakra, to the crown where self-illumination is then said to occur. There is a documentation that ancient initiatory rites around the world were intended to enhance this process. Moreover, according to some Sumerian and biblical stories, the word 'serpent' is derived from the word nehash, which means "he who finds things out, he who can decipher".

As we will see, the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica clearly had access to ancient sacred knowledge, although it's source is unknown. Figurines and other depictions of the early priest-kings of Mesoamerica found in the La Venta area - an ancient Olmec settlement located near the border of modern Tabasco and Veracruz states - and elsewhere show tall, bearded, long-robed men in headresses with features that have Semetic, Phoenician, Negroid, or Chinese charcteristics. Even Quetzalcoatl - a chief Toltec and Aztec god-man identified with rain, Venus, and the morning star, and represented by a feathered serpent - was sometimes depicted as a tall, bearded being. It is well known that the indigenous people of Mesoamerica, whose ancestors allegedly came to this continent over the Bering Strait, did not have the genetic capacity to grow beards,were not tall, and did not have African, European, or distinctly Oriental features. Although we do not know who these priest-kings or god-men were or where they came from, they apparently introduced the people of Mesoamerica to the great initiations and the path of the great mysteries.

At Monte Alban, a ruined city of the Zapotec near Oaxaca in southern Mexico, there is a collection of very old stelae, figures in various postures engraved on stone slabs. Evidence of the use of the Mayan long count (the system used on slate to accurately describe a given date) was found onthese slabs. This evidence dated the slabs to at least 600 B.C. They also display a sophisticated knowledge of the human chakra system and the use of kundalini. They portray human figures in various states of ecstacy as if dancing between worlds and are likely related to powerful initiation rites.

Early exploration of early Mesoamerican cultures have yielded further insights into ancient traditions and their use of sacred knowledge. Augustus Le Plongeon, a Frenchman, was the first European adventurer to gain the trust of the early Maya. Along with his wife Alice he spent some 12 years living among them in the 1870's. During this time the people shared with him secret lore for which the Spanish had burned many of their ancestors at the stake. Le Plongeon learned that the Maya still practiced magic and described shamans who disappeared and reappeared like Carlos Casteneda's don Juan and who made strange objects appear and disappear. Such practices are not unlike those of the siddhis or powers of the great yogis of contempoorary India. Le Plongeon describes the activities of the Mayan shamans in the following manner:

"Sometimes the place where they were operating would seem to shake as if an earthquake were occurring, or whirl around and around as ifbeing carried away by a tornado. Sometimes they [the shamans] appeared to be bathed in bright and resplendent light, and flames seemed to issue from the walls only to be extinguished by invisible hands in the most profound obscurity where flashes of lightening made the dark appear darker."

Such stories of the miraculous raise serious questions about who these early people were. Although many theories exist that suggest the people of Mesoamerica and Peru were descendants of Atlantis or Lemuria, questions about the identity of these early people have never been difinitively answered. Yet, despite limited knowledge, there is a sizable amount of information (including the modern dating of the ruins) that lends credence to the idea that Mesoamerican civilizations were remnants of far earlier seedings.

One case in point is evidence suggested by William Niven, a mining engineer who worked for a Mexican corporation and who, between 1910 and 1930, discovered the remains of two separate prehistoric civilizations near Mexico City. Based on the strata these ruins were found in, they are believed to be over 50,000 years old. However, since there was no other evidence of any civilization this old, conventional academians entirely ignored his findings. But believers in the existence of Atlantis became very excited and rapidly popularized his findings to support their theories.

The most dramatic of Niven's discoveries were 2,600 stone tablets with strange paintings or pictographs, found in a hamlet near Mexico City. Based on the stata in which they were found, the tablets were thought to be between 12,000 and 50,000 years old. Some tablets included figures that depicted certain Masonic gestures and symbols that were were still practiced by Masons in Niven's time. These figures demonstrated a knowledge of ancient mysteries that remain the basis of the great mystery schools.

Althought the origin of early Mesoamerican civilizations remains a mystery, we know that in areas throughout Mesoamerica and Peru, cultures appeared rapidly and almost simultaneously, quickly developing very advanced civilizations. Unlike anything the world had previously seen, these civilizations were both spiritually evolved and materially stable. The people of these civilizations built huge pyramids and massive ceremonial centers and had a highly developed knowledge of mathematics and astronomy. Then, as mysteriously as these apparently unconnected but advanced civilizations had appeared, they disappeared - all about the same time. At Teotihuacan, Palenque, Monte Alban, Tiahuanaco, and throughout Mesoamerica as early as A.D. 650, many of the most extraordinary temples, pyramids, and ceremonial centers were abandoned - destroyed by their builders and in some cases actually buried. According to folklore, the priest kings disappeared one day, making the journey accross the great cosmic river and bridge in the Milkey Way to the land of the gods.