Need help w/Col. James Churchward

[livingintheraw]

I am very interested in many subjects. I have run across a Col. James Churchward and his writings on Mu. I saw one comment made by someone on Amazon which stated he was a kook who was never in the service and the tablets that he translated from no one has ever seen. I've searched the web and found on several web sites pictures of him on his way to India and various other activities. Every web site I go to acts as if his writings are factual. None of the sites go into how he came by his information. They just talk about the civilization of MU. I was wondering if anyone out there had any factual biographical information on him. What happened to these tablets that he translated, how is it that he became so widely accepted etc.... None of the sites seems to go into this type of information.

[Quahom1]

Welcome to CR!

You might want to follow this thread below, as it digs at the issue you are looking for.

http://www.comparative-religion.com/...9557#post39557

Once again, welcome!


v/r

Q

[Nogodnomasters]

Originally Posted by livingintheraw

I am very interested in many subjects. I have run across a Col. James Churchward and his writings on Mu. I saw one comment made by someone on Amazon which stated he was a kook who was never in the service and the tablets that he translated from no one has ever seen. I've searched the web and found on several web sites pictures of him on his way to India and various other activities. Every web site I go to acts as if his writings are factual. None of the sites go into how he came by his information. They just talk about the civilization of MU. I was wondering if anyone out there had any factual biographical information on him. What happened to these tablets that he translated, how is it that he became so widely accepted etc.... None of the sites seems to go into this type of information.

I do not know when he lived, but during the 19th century, especially the last half and early part of the 20th century numerous books on religion and ancient civilizations appeared. They were very popular and were made up. Kessinger Publishers has reprinted many of these books. I find them interesting, but I wouldn't rest my beliefs on someone who claimed they found something, translated it, and then lost it.

[pohaikawahine]

There are several references that may be helpful in looking at the works of James Churchward .... one is a lecture he gave in 1931 before the American Society for Psychical Research in New York .... the last time I saw it was in 2001 at this web site http://www.geocities.com/ganggon/1931lecture/ don't know if it is still there or not. Another, I don't know if you can get it or not, is a rather long piece called "My Friend Churchey and His Sunken Island of Mu" by Percy Tate Griffith, Larchmont, NY 1937 .... he tells about his friendship with James Churchward and said he was a Mason, soldier, scholar, student, thinker, explorer, artist, inventor, engineer, metallurgist, expert angler ... appears that Percy Tate Griffith was a childhood friend of Churchward and he discussed much of his work on Lemuria with Giffith .... Griffith introduced Churchward to two people that led to his devotion to the Continent of Mu .... Professor Augustus Le Plongeon (born 1826) and his wife and exploring-compansion Madame Alice Le Plongeon .... they were explorers and archaeologists who worked quite extensive in the Yucatan and the ruins of Chichen Itza. I have an old disc with this story put out by the daughter of Percy Griffith - I believe she was planning to do a biography on Churchward some day. Personally I have some problems with Churchward's perspective but that is personal and doesn't prevent me from looking at what he wrote because it has a lot of interesting refernces. My own introduction of this place called Mu (which in the ancient hawaiian language is called "Ta Rua") comes from a Hawaiian perspective and references in old chants. I was involved in a 2 year dialogue on whether or not Mu actually existed in the physical world. Part of this lost continent is supposingly connected with an ancient place called Nam Madol on a small island called Pohnpei .... I have been to that sacred place many times and have heard the stories from many island perspectives about how it was built .... I have my own interpretations, but that is not relative to this dicussion. I think one of the most interesting book put out by Churchward is called "Books of the Golden Age" which he wrote in 1927. One of the symbols he discusses at great length is the circle with the cross in it .... I have seen this symbol on many of the old paintings on the bai's (traditional houses on the island of Belau) but they are suspended from a spider poised over a clam shell .... each leg of the spider holds one of these discs .... the circle with the cross also represents the sacred seven which are the circle, the two halves and the four quartrants .... in his book he also has a drawing of the seven headed serpent .... as a side note the seven-headed serpent is also found in the Talmud in a story of a "mazik" which plagued the study hall of Abayeh. I only point this out because in my view everything is conected in the inner meaning of the symbols and that is what is important about the works of Churchward .... many symbols that he attempts to interpret, some accurately .... some not .... but they are all drawn in great detail. he hawai'i au, pohaikawahine