146 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
In this South American myth is preserved a folk memory of the cometary
havoc wrought worldwide immediately prior to the destruction of Atlantis.
Chronologer, Neil Zimmerer, writes that Irin Mage “fled Atlantis when the
island sank into the sea, and founded the Nation of Tupinamba,” in prehistoric
Brazil.Isla Mujeres
The “Isle of Women” is a narrow, small island 7 miles long, about 3 miles
offshore at the northeast point of Yucatan. It was named by the Spaniards, who
first landed in the 1520s, for the numerous stone statues they found of what they
assumed were representations of different women. Actually, the statues—appar-
ently several hundred of them—portrayed various manifestations of a single de-
ity, the lunar-goddess Ixchel, to whom the island was consecrated as a sacred center;
hence, its absence of native population. Isla Mujeres was used by the Mayas only
as a place of spiritual pilgrimage.
At the far southern point of the island stands a small, ruined shrine housing
the remains of an altar. The site was ransacked and the island’s statues demol-
ished, their fragments tossed into the sea on orders of Catholic friars who con-
demned such artwork as satanic. In addition to her attributes as the divine patroness
of childbirth and prophesy, Ixchel, “the White Lady,” was the mother of the Maya
people. They venerated her as the survivor of a great deluge that destroyed her
former kingdom in the Atlantic Ocean. As such, her chief places of worship
on islands like Isla Mujeres and Cozumel were chosen to reflect her Atlantean
origins.
(See Ixchel)Island of Jewels
In Hindu myth, a paradisiacal realm in the eastern Pacific Ocean, from which
the founders of the Brahman caste arrived in India during the distant past. The
island was hidden by a misty ether known as the akasha, a poetic metaphor for
“ancient memory” or “forgetfulness.” Its beaches were formed of powdered gems,
and the forests were perpetually in bloom. At the center of the island was located
a magnificent palace, where all wishes were granted.
(See Mu)Isle of the Sun
A magnificent island kingdom in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, from
which Manco Capac, his wife, and followers fled during a time of wide-spread
degeneracy. Their sinful homeland was destroyed in a flood sent as punishment