166 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
previously sheltered and nurtured the lemmings still survives in the evolutionary
memories and compelling instincts of their descendants.Lemuel
Literally, the “king” (el) of Lemu(ria), the contemporary civilization of Atlantis
in the Pacific. His royal identity is underscored in the Old Testament (Proverbs,
viii, 31), where he is described as a monarch. The 18th-century American revolu-
tionary, Thomas Paine, wrote in The Age of Reason that the verse in which he
appears “stands as a preface to the Proverbs that follow, and which are not the
proverbs of Solomon, but of Lemuel; and this Lemuel was not one of the kings of
Israel, nor of Judah, but of some other country, and consequently a Gentile” (134).
The Lemurians reputedly proselytized the tenets of their spirituality far and wide,
so the biblical “proverbs” associated with King Lemuel may have been remnants
of Pacific contacts in deep antiquity.
(See Lemuria)Lemuria
An ancient civilization of the Pacific predating both the emergence and de-
struction of Atlantis. The name derives from a Roman festival, celebrated every
May 9, 11, and 15, to appease the souls of men and women who perished when
Lemuria was destroyed by a natural catastrophe. These dates probably represent
the days during which the destruction took place. The Lemuria festival was believed
to have been instituted by the founder of Rome, Romulus, as expiation for the
murder of his twin brother, Remus. During the observance, celebrants walked bare-
foot, as though they had fled from a disaster, and went through their homes casting
black beans behind them nine times in a ritual of rebirth; black beans were symbolic
of human souls which were still earthbound (that is, ghosts), while 9 was a sacred
numeral signifying birth (the nine months of pregnancy).
The ritual’s objective was to honor and exorcise any unhappy spirits which
may haunt a house. This part of the Roman Lemuria is identically observed by
Japanese participants in the Bon Festival, or “Feast of Lanterns,” when the head
of the household walks barefoot through each room of his home exclaiming, “Bad
spirits, out! Good spirits, in!” while casting beans behind him.
Obviously, both ancient Rome and Japan received a common tradition indepen-
dently from the same source, when Mu was destroyed in a great flood. A graphic
reenactment of that deluge occurred on the third day of the Roman Lemuria, when
celebrants cast 30 images made of rushes into the River Tiber. What the images
represented (perhaps human beings?), and why they were put together from rushes
is not precisely known, but they were plainly meant to simulate loss in a torrent of
water. Nor is the specific significance of 30 understood, although Koziminsky (citing
Heydon’s similar opinion) defines it as appropriately calamitous (49).
The name, “Lemuria,” is not confined to Rome, but occurs as far away as
among the Chumash Indians of southern California. They referred to San Miguel