B: Bacab to Byamspa 75
He paraphrased British myth in characterizing Albion as a flood hero who led a
contingent of survivors from Atlantis to England, which derived its early name from
him. Blake held that both ancient Britain and pre-Columbian America were
indebted to Atlantean culture-bearers. It says something for the credibility of an
historic Atlantis that men of William Blake’s genius believed the drowned civilization
was something more than fable, as its less-renowned skeptics continue to insist.
(See Albion)Bochica
He is still known to various Indian tribes in coastal Colombia, Venezuela, and
Brazil, such as the Chibchas, near Bogotá, Colombia, as a white-skinned giant
with a long beard who supported the sky on his shoulders, until he dropped it,
causing the whole world to burst into flame and flood at the same time. The disaster
destroyed his home across the sea, forcing his children to migrate for their lives to
South America, where they became the ancestors of today’s native peoples. After
this catastrophe, Bochica reassumed his burden of the heavens, which he still
supports, but causes earthquakes when he shifts the weight on his shoulders. In
variants of his myth, he condemned a demon responsible for the natural disaster,
Chibchacum, to hold up the sky, while Bochica took up residence on the world’s
first rainbow. Ever since, rainbows are not only associated with the god, but ven-
erated as commemorative phenomena of the ancestral flood.
This tribal memory of what can only be the destruction of Atlantis is ignored
by skeptics of the lost civilization. But why else would a dark-skinned people un-
able to grow beards concoct a pre-Columbian story about a bearded, white giant
causing a great flood? Moreover, the South American deluge myth contains many
elements found around the world, such as the annihilation of a distant, splendid
kingdom; some celestial disturbance; the arrival of racially alien survivors, who
become the ancestors of future leaders; and so on. Like Plato’s Kritias, in which
Zeus destroys Atlantis for the iniquity of its inhabitants, Bochica brings about the
catastrophe to punish a sinful mankind.
(See Cuchavira, Zuhe)Bon
An important Feast of the Dead held in the middle of the seventh lunar month,
around August 14 or 16, when spirits return to visit their earthly homes in Japan.
Bon Odori are hypnotic outdoor dances held at this time. They are shamanic
exercises used to induce altered states of consciousness for commiserating with
the spirits. Bon concludes after sundown with burning lanterns floating across the
sea to guide the departed back to the Otherworld. The festival is not unlike Thailand’s
Lak Krathong or the Roman Lemuria, all of which aim at propitiating ghosts from
Mu, the Pacific Ocean civilization lost beneath the seas in ancient times.
(See Lak Krathong, Lemuria, Mu)