MARCO M. VIGATO
AUTHOR | RESEARCHER | EXPLORER
THE EMPIRES OF ATLANTIS
By Marco M. Vigato
Combining the latest scientific evidence with the timeless wisdom of the esoteric Tradition, The Empires of Atlantis traces a radically different picture of humanity’s remote origins – A global seafaring culture of prehistoric antiquity that colonized the planet and then mysteriously vanished at the end of the last Ice Age, not before planting the seeds, however, of what we know today as Western Civilization.
PRAISE FOR THE EMPIRES OF ATLANTIS
I don't know of anyone else who has the scope and vision to try to reconcile, let us say, Guenon, Sitchin, and contemporary science!
Joscelyn Godwin
Author of Atlantis and the Cycles of Time
Of the many hundreds of books published about Atlantis over the last twenty-four centuries, The Lost Cradle is unique. Author Marco Vigato synthesizes the rational criteria of modern science with the legacy of Western Esoteric Tradition to offer his different perspective on a familiar subject readers will find at once engagingly credible and eerily contemporary.
Frank Joseph
Author of The Atlantis Encyclopedia and The Destruction of Atlantis
Marco Vigato’s well researched and insightful book reveals an ancient, unknown megalithic civilization, adept at constructing magnificent pyramids and highly stylized buildings in such far away places as Egypt, Mexico and Peru. These people appear to be part of a worldwide culture and possibly the fabled Atlantis, representing a missing epoch of a maritime nation in possession of a science and technology that is still beyond our perception. This is an important book that advances our understanding of the past.
Cliff Dunning
Writer, host of Earth Ancients podcast
THE MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION
The origin of Man is unknown. Esoteric Tradition suggests that the first modern humans originated not in Africa, but on a now sunken Mid-Atlantic continent over half a million years ago. Ancient chronologies similarly speak of divine dynasties going back hundreds of thousands of years to a mythical Golden Age, when the gods walked amongst men.
Combining the latest discoveries in the fields of archaeology, geology and genetics with the mystery teachings of antiquity, The Lost Cradle is a breathtaking enquiry into the true origins of civilization: Spanning over 100,000 years, it provides for the first time a clear and coherent answer to some fundamental questions of prehistory, including:
-
The true origins of Modern Man
-
The existence of Atlantis and other lost lands
-
The cause of Cosmic Cycles and the real nature of precession
-
The date of the last terrestrial cataclysm
-
The origin of world civilizations and cultures
-
The real nature of Western Civilization and its debt towards Atlantis
-
The end of the present Cycle
After establishing the historical and geological reality of Atlantis, the first part of the book traces the course of Atlantean civilization from its obscure origins at the beginning of the present cycle to the time of its fall. Drawing from over 500 ancient and modern sources, it shows that there were indeed two Atlantean Empires; the first from 432,000 to 35,335 B.C. and the second from 21,142 to 10,961 B.C. These were followed by a third, Neo-Atlantean Empire between 10,961 and 9,600 B.C.
During this immense period of time, eras of culture were followed by times of lawlessness, during which nearly all artistic and scientific development was lost. The first terrestrial cataclysm of 35,335 B.C. brought the divine dynasties to an end. From the ruins of the universal empire of the first World Age, two different centers of civilization and culture emerged, one on Atlantis, the other in Central Asia. All of present-day humanity can in some way claim descent from one of these centers. Colonies were established at the time of the Second Atlantean Empire in various parts of the world, from Egypt to India and Peru. It was also the time when the Atlantean ‘Sons of the Gods’ mingled with the ‘Daughters of Man’ to create a new hybrid progeny, the Nephilim.
When cataclysm struck again for a second time in 10,961 B.C., Atlantean civilization was forced underground to survive. From these scattered embers of mankind, a New Atlantean Empire was born. Its center was no longer on Atlantis, but in Egypt. Within a few centuries, this Empire covered virtually the entire planet with a colossal network of pyramids, earthen mounds and megalithic monuments. It was a project that involved no less that the resurrection of the former World of the Gods. Yet, by 9,600 B.C., at the end of a time that Geologists know as the Younger-Dryas, this colossal project lay in ruins. The events of the following centuries sealed not only the fate of Atlantean civilization, but also planted the basis of our own Western culture.
Although mortally wounded by the unspeakable destruction unleashed by the Younger Dryas cataclysm, Atlantean civilization did not simply vanish “in one terrible day and night”. Instead, it continued to influence the course of human civilization and culture for millennia. In the second part of the book we follow the path of Atlantean survivors as they attempted to restart civilization in various parts of the world. We trace the course of at least two major Atlantean migrations: the first along the Eastern Atlantic seaboard and into the Mediterranean; the second towards Mexico and Central America. We show that as recently as 1,200 B.C., a great maritime culture was again thriving on the last remaining Atlantean islands still above water. Known as the ‘Sea Peoples’ or ‘Pelasgians’, this culture traded with Egypt and Mesopotamia, and made regular journeys to America. A bronze-age comet, however, brought this flourishing trans-oceanic trade to a fiery end, its effects being felt over an immense area from Northern Europe to Anatolia.
The third and final part of the book is also the most speculative, as it explores the possibility of a survival of the primeval Atlantean Tradition through various underground streams till the dawn of the Modern Age: Around the world, mysterious monuments testify to the survival of a ‘Sacred Science’ of Atlantean origin, whose purpose seems to be no less than the continuation of the Great Work that was left unfinished with the fall of the Neo-Atlantean Empire, over 10,000 years ago. As we approach the end of the present cycle, the whole world is now called to become a New Atlantis. The new cycle will usher in a new Golden Age, or mark the end of humanity as we know it.
The Lost Cradle will be the first book in a series dedicated to exploring the different aspects of Atlantean civilization and culture. Later books will focus on the 'Sacred Science' and technology of Atlantis, as well as on its surviving monumental legacy.
WHY ANOTHER BOOK ABOUT ATLANTIS?
The last few years have seen the emergence of a new paradigm of prehistory. Archaeologists have uncovered the evidence of sophisticated Stone Age cultures where none were supposed to exist. A mysterious megalithic temple in Southeastern Turkey has now been convincingly dated to 9,000 B.C., while a new recently discovered pyramid in Indonesia may prove to be even older, at nearly 30,000 years of age.
2,500 years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato described a highly advanced civilization that perished in a global cataclysm at about the same time as geology now shows a major cometary body impacted our planet, around 10,000 B.C. This civilization was Atlantis.
Unlike most other books on Atlantis and ancient lost civilizations, The Lost Cradle is unique in combining the latest scientific evidence with the timeless wisdom of the western esoteric Tradition. As the book shows chapter after chapter, these views are not only complementary, but do in fact confirm and corroborate each other in multiple, often unexpected ways, resulting in a whole new picture of the true origins of civilization and of humanity.
Notwithstanding hundreds of books written on the subject of Atlantis, this lost civilization stands like a faceless ghost in the mists of prehistory. No consistent narrative has yet emerged concerning the rise and eventual demise of Atlantean civilization.
The Lost Cradle restores the Atlantean tradition to its rightful place in the timeline of human history. Drawing from over 500 ancient and modern sources, the book draws a complete chronology of Atlantean civilization through three different epochs, starting in about 100,000 B.C and ending with the Younger Dryas cataclysm of 10,961 B.C. More importantly, it shows that although Atlantis may have vanished "in a single day and night", its civilization and culture did not, but lived on for thousands of years more to form the core of what we call today “Western civilization”.
I don't know of anyone else who has the scope and vision to try to reconcile, let us say, Guenon, Sitchin, and contemporary science!
Joscelyn Godwin
Author of Atlantis and the Cycles of Time
Of the many hundreds of books published about Atlantis over the last twenty-four centuries, The Lost Cradle is unique. Author Marco Vigato synthesizes the rational criteria of modern science with the legacy of Western Esoteric Tradition.
Frank Joseph
Author of The Atlantis Encyclopedia
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE EMPIRES OF ATLANTIS
PART I - ESOTERIC HISTORY
1. Worlds before our own
2. Atlantis and the cycles of time
3. The calendars of Atlantis
PART II - THE FIRST TIME
4. The mysterious origins of Man
5. The world in the First Age
6. Atlantis in the Second Age
PART III - TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
7. Serpents in the sky
8. Surviving the Apocalypse
PART IV - THE NEW ATLANTIS
9. The New Atlantis
10. The Neo-Atlantean Empires
PART V - THE MEGALITHIC ODYSSEY
11. The Atlantean diaspora
12. Peoples from the Sea
13. The Nephilim wars
14. Across to the New World
PART VI - THE LEGACY
15. The end of the journey?
A LOST MID-ATLANTIC CONTINENT?
When Plato spoke of Atlantis in his two famous dialogues Timaeus and Critias in the 4th Century BC he described an island “larger than Africa and Asia together”, situated in the Atlantic Ocean in front of the Pillars of Hercules. Ignoring the obvious hints provided by Plato, hundreds of alternative locations have been proposed for Atlantis, from the tiny Greek island of Santorini to Antarctica. Yet geological and climatological evidence shows beyond a doubt that a large landmass comparable to Plato’s Atlantis existed in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean until at least the end of the last Ice Age. The last islands of Atlantis may have even inspired certain cartographic “phantoms” and mythical islands that still appeared on European Portolan charts as late as the Middle Ages.
THE TRUE ORIGINS OF MAN
Atlantis, not Africa was the true cradle of the human race. The first modern humans appeared on Atlantis over half a million years ago, mixing with other hominin and early human species to give birth to Cro-Magnon Man. Myths from around the world speak of the meeting of the “Sons of God” with the “Daughters of Man”, and of their hybrid progeny – the Nephilim. It was them who created the first civilizations on Earth, and bequeathed early humanity the gifts of agriculture, astronomy, metalworking and megalithic architecture.
A NEW TIMELINE OF HISTORY
Ancient chronologies speak of a time, tens of thousands of years ago, when the gods lived amongst men. Egyptian and Babylonian king lists record the events of this remote time before the last terrestrial cataclysm, making it possible to reconstruct a wholly new timeline of history and of the origin of civilization in different parts of the world. The Lost Cradle shows that there was not only one Atlantean empire, but two Atlantean Empires, each separated by thousands of years, followed by a Neo-Atlantean and Post-Atlantean period extending well into the European Bronze Age, and possibly even later. It thus becomes possible to explain such enigmas of ancient history as the origin of the Sea Peoples, the diffusion of megalithic architecture and the origin of the great historical civilizations of Egypt, Sumer, India, China and South America, appearing already fully formed at the dawn of history as if out of nowhere.
THE LEGACY OF A LOST CIVILIZATION
Around 12,000 years ago, the Neolithic revolution started out of the mists of the last Ice Age and the Younger Dryas cataclysm. This was not a new beginning, but the legacy of an immensely old tradition slowly recovering from the ashes of destruction. In 10,961 BC a massive fragmenting comet impacted the Laurentide Ice sheet then covering northern Canada with a force equivalent to several hundred times all the world’s nuclear weapons combined. The precious little that survived the fiery blaze of the impacts would be lost in the following centuries to rising sea levels. Yet, miraculously, some of the science and technology of the antediluvian survived and was carried on by strange missionaries with a peculiar task to accomplish – to resurrect the lost world of the Gods. These people, survivors from the great cataclysm, became the founders of all the great civilizations of the historical period. Their legacy can be found not only in the great monuments that they inherited us, but also in the very food we eat, in the language we speak and in mankind’s early knowledge of mathematics and astronomy.
WHERE DID THEY GO?
Just as Atlantis did not vanish “in a single day and night”, the legacy of Atlantean civilization lives on in many of our most basic cultural expressions. Even beyond this, there is evidence throughout history that the flame of civilization was purposefully kept alive by various groups of initiates and mystery schools around the world, some of which may still exert more than a passing influence on world events today. It is only through the rediscovery of our Atlantean origins and the science and wisdom of the antediluvian epoch that the world can be again transformed into a New Atlantis, ushering in a new Golden Age for mankind.
