86 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
four seasons merged into each other, pairs of opposites were resolved, and the
alternating principles of yin and yang no longer strove against each other, but
grew peaceful in balanced harmony. Chien-Mu signifies the sacred center, the
still-point reached in deep meditation. Its name implies that these concepts are
to be associated with the Pacific Motherland of Mu, the original Navel of the
World, where they were first developed and employed in reaching high levels of
spiritual attainment.
(See Navel of the World)Chikubujima
Shrine to Benten, or Benzaiten, the goddess who brought civilization to
Japan in a great ship from across the sea. Chikubujima’s location on the shores of
Lake Biwa, or Biwa-ko, is not entirely legendary, because along its shores are
found the earliest evidence for human habitation in the islands. It was here that
culture-bearers from Lemuria probably first landed in Japan.
(See Benten, Lemuria, Shinobazu)Chimu
A pre-Inca people who raised a powerful civilization, Chimor, that dominated
the Peruvian coast from circa 900 A.D., until their defeat by the Incas during the
late 15th century. The capital, Chan-Chan, lies just north of Trujillo, and was
founded, according to Chimu historians, by Taycana-mu. He had been sent on a
culture-founding mission by his superior, who ruled a kingdom in the Pacific Ocean.
Another important Chimor city was Pacatna-mu, christened after an early Chimu
general who became the regional governor. The so-called “Palace of the Governor”
at Chan-Chan features a wall decorated with a frieze depicting a sunken city—
fish swimming over the tops of contiguous pyramids. The scene memorializes the
drowned civilization of Mu, from which the ancestors of the Chimu—literally, the
“Children of Mu”—arrived on Peruvian shores after the catastrophe. Their
Lemurian heritage likewise appears in other significant names, such as Taycana-mu,
Pacatna-mu, and so on.
(See Mu)Chintamani
AlsoCintimani, Sanskrit for “magical stone from another world.” Now at the
Moscow Museum, the Chintamani is an exceptionally clear quartz crystal, once in
the possession of Nicholas Roerich, a German-American Russian, prominent artist,
mystic, and world-traveler of the early and mid-20th century. His paintings are
still valued for their stark, though pure numinosity. Most of them are on public
display at New York’s Roerich Museum. Childress writes, “ancient Asian chronicles
claim that a divine messenger from the heavens gave a fragment of the stone to