James Churchward
Encyclopedia
James Churchward is best known as a British
born occult writer. However, he was also a patented inventor, engineer, and expert fisherman.
He was the elder brother of the Masonic author Albert Churchward (1852–1925.) He was a tea planter in Sri Lanka
before coming to the US in the 1890s. In James' biography entitled My Friend Churchey and His Sunken Continent, he discussed Mu with Augustus LePlongeon and his wife in the 1890s. He patented NCV Steel, armor plating to protect ships during World War I
, and other steel alloys. After a patent-infringement settlement in 1914, James retired to his 7+ acre estate on Lake Wononskopomuc in Lakeville, Connecticut
, to answer the questions from his Pacific travels. In 1926, at the age of 75, he published The Lost Continent of Mu: Motherland of Man, which he claimed proved the existence of a lost continent, called Mu
, in the Pacific Ocean
.
s and Easter Island
." He claimed Mu was the site of the Garden of Eden
and the home of 64,000,000 inhabitants - known as the Naacal
s. Its civilization, which flourished 50,000 years before Churchward's day, was technologically more advanced than his own, and the ancient civilizations of India
, Babylon
, Persia, Egypt
and the Mayas were merely the decayed remnants of its colonies.
Geologically
, the existence of Mu, as described by Churchward, is extremely unlikely, since the Andesite Line
would run through the western parts of the continent.
Churchward claimed to have gained his knowledge of this lost land after befriending an Indian priest, who taught him to read an ancient dead language (spoken by only three people in all of India). The priest disclosed the existence of several ancient tablets, written by the Naacals, and Churchward gained access to these records after overcoming the priest's initial reluctance. His knowledge remained incomplete, as the available tablets were mere fragments of a larger text, but Churchward claimed to have found verification and further information in the records of other ancient peoples.
His writings attempt to describe the civilization of Mu, its history, inhabitants, and influence on subsequent history and civilization.
Churchward claimed that the ancient Egyptian sun-god Ra
originated with the Mu; he claimed that "Rah" was the word which the Naacals used for "sun" as well as for their god and rulers.
undertook research on Easter Island
in the 1930s, and in 1940 published a monograph on Easter Island which includes a rebuttal of the hypothesis that Easter Island was a remnant of a sunken continent.
In the second half of the twentieth century, improvements in oceanography
, in particular understanding of seafloor spreading
and Plate Tectonics
, have left little scientific basis for geologically recent lost continents such as Mu.
by H. P. Lovecraft
.
Churchward's writings are a key influence for the plot of the anime
series RahXephon
.
Churchward's writings were satirized by occult writer Raymond Buckland
in his novel Mu Revealed, written under the pseudonym "Tony Earll" (an anagram
for "not really").
In James Rollins
' novel "Deep Fathom", Churchward is the great-grandfather of book character Karen Grace who takes part in revealing the mystery of Mu
.
Churchward's writings are used as a source for the following books:
UK-based electronic music record-label Planet Mu
has released three compilation albums with titles copied from Churchward's own books: The Cosmic Forces of Mu (2001), Children of Mu (2004) and Sacred Symbols of Mu (2006).
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
born occult writer. However, he was also a patented inventor, engineer, and expert fisherman.
He was the elder brother of the Masonic author Albert Churchward (1852–1925.) He was a tea planter in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
before coming to the US in the 1890s. In James' biography entitled My Friend Churchey and His Sunken Continent, he discussed Mu with Augustus LePlongeon and his wife in the 1890s. He patented NCV Steel, armor plating to protect ships during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and other steel alloys. After a patent-infringement settlement in 1914, James retired to his 7+ acre estate on Lake Wononskopomuc in Lakeville, Connecticut
Lakeville, Connecticut
Lakeville is a village and census-designated place in the town of Salisbury in Litchfield County, Connecticut, on Lake Wononskopomuc. The village includes Lakeville Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district represents about of the village center...
, to answer the questions from his Pacific travels. In 1926, at the age of 75, he published The Lost Continent of Mu: Motherland of Man, which he claimed proved the existence of a lost continent, called Mu
Mu (lost continent)
Mu is the name of a hypothetical continent that allegedly existed in one of Earth's oceans, but disappeared at the dawn of human history.The concept and the name were proposed by 19th century traveler and writer Augustus Le Plongeon, who claimed that several ancient civilizations, such as those of...
, in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
.
Early life
James was born in Bridestow, Okehampton, Devon at Stone House to Henry and Matilda (née Gould) Churchward. James had four brothers, George Gould (1839–1924), Matthew Henry (1841–1915), William Gould (1844–1913), and Albert (1852–1925), and four sisters, Matilda (b. 1846), Elizabeth (1849-?), Eleanor Steed (1847–1881), Heroine Roey(1854–1946). In November 1854, James' father died and the family moved to Matilda's parent's home Northcotts Cottage, Hamlet of Kigbear, Okehampton, Devon. Census records indicate the family next moved to London when James was 18 years of age and after his grandfather (George Gould) died.Claims and hypothesis
According to Churchward, Mu "extended from somewhere north of Hawaii to the south as far as the FijiFiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
s and Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
." He claimed Mu was the site of the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
and the home of 64,000,000 inhabitants - known as the Naacal
Naacal
Naacal is the name of an ancient people and civilization claimed to have existed by first Augustus Le Plongeon and later James Churchward. Though there is no scientific or archaeological evidence for the existence of the Naacals, various later fictional works have made use of them.-Augustus Le...
s. Its civilization, which flourished 50,000 years before Churchward's day, was technologically more advanced than his own, and the ancient civilizations of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
, Persia, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and the Mayas were merely the decayed remnants of its colonies.
Geologically
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, the existence of Mu, as described by Churchward, is extremely unlikely, since the Andesite Line
Andesite Line
The andesite line is the most significant regional geologic distinction in the Pacific Ocean basin. It separates the mafic basaltic volcanic rocks of the Central Pacific Basin from the partially submerged continental areas of more felsic andesitic volcanic rock on its margins. The andesite line...
would run through the western parts of the continent.
Churchward claimed to have gained his knowledge of this lost land after befriending an Indian priest, who taught him to read an ancient dead language (spoken by only three people in all of India). The priest disclosed the existence of several ancient tablets, written by the Naacals, and Churchward gained access to these records after overcoming the priest's initial reluctance. His knowledge remained incomplete, as the available tablets were mere fragments of a larger text, but Churchward claimed to have found verification and further information in the records of other ancient peoples.
His writings attempt to describe the civilization of Mu, its history, inhabitants, and influence on subsequent history and civilization.
Churchward claimed that the ancient Egyptian sun-god Ra
Ra
Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...
originated with the Mu; he claimed that "Rah" was the word which the Naacals used for "sun" as well as for their god and rulers.
Scientific rebuttal
Alfred MetrauxAlfred Metraux
Alfred Métraux was a Swiss anthropologist and human rights leader.-Early life:Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Metraux spent much of his childhood in Argentina where his father was a well known surgeon resident in Mendoza. His mother was a Georgian from Tbilisi...
undertook research on Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
in the 1930s, and in 1940 published a monograph on Easter Island which includes a rebuttal of the hypothesis that Easter Island was a remnant of a sunken continent.
In the second half of the twentieth century, improvements in oceanography
Oceanography
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
, in particular understanding of seafloor spreading
Seafloor spreading
Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics....
and Plate Tectonics
Plate tectonics
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
, have left little scientific basis for geologically recent lost continents such as Mu.
Popular culture
Churchward is mentioned in fiction in the short story Through the Gates of the Silver KeyThrough the Gates of the Silver Key
"Through the Gates of the Silver Key" is a short story co-written by H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price between October 1932 and April 1933. A sequel to Lovecraft's "The Silver Key", and part of a sequence of stories focusing on Randolph Carter, it was first published in the July 1934 issue of...
by H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
.
Churchward's writings are a key influence for the plot of the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series RahXephon
RahXephon
is a Japanese anime series about 17-year-old Ayato Kamina, his ability to control a godlike mecha known as the RahXephon, and his inner journey to find a place in the world...
.
Churchward's writings were satirized by occult writer Raymond Buckland
Raymond Buckland
Raymond Buckland , whose craft name is Robat, is an English American writer on the subject of Wicca and the occult, and a significant figure in the history of Wicca, of which he is a High Priest in both the Gardnerian and Seax traditions.According to his written works, primarily Witchcraft from the...
in his novel Mu Revealed, written under the pseudonym "Tony Earll" (an anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
for "not really").
In James Rollins
James Rollins
* For the American baseball pitcher, see Jim Czajkowski* For the American baseball shortstop, see Jimmy Rollins* For the 19th century American politician from Missouri, see James S. Rollins...
' novel "Deep Fathom", Churchward is the great-grandfather of book character Karen Grace who takes part in revealing the mystery of Mu
Mu
- Language :* Mu , Μ or μ, a letter in the Greek alphabet* Mu , represented by the Japanese kana む or ム* 無, Mu , a Japanese and Korean word important in Zen practice...
.
Churchward's writings are used as a source for the following books:
- Lemuria and Atlantis: Studying the Past to Survive the Future by Shirley Andrews.
- Lost Cities of China, Central Asia & India by David Hatcher Childress
- Lost Cities of Atlantis, Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean by David Hatcher Childress
- Timeless Earth by Peter Kolosimo
- The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story ever Sold by Acharya S
- Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha, and Christ Unveiled by Acharya S
- Mu, a comic book from the Corto MalteseCorto MalteseCorto Maltese is a comics series featuring an eponymous character, a complex sailor-adventurer. It was created by Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt in 1967...
series, by Hugo PrattHugo PrattHugo Eugenio Pratt was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as Corto Maltese...
- The fantastical floating continent of Zeal from Chrono TriggerChrono Triggeris a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Chrono Triggers development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a...
video game has several oblique refences to a philosophy called "Nu".
UK-based electronic music record-label Planet Mu
Planet Mu
Planet Mu is an electronic music record label run by Mike Paradinas . It was based in Worcester until March 2007, then moved to London and has recently relocated to Broadstairs, Kent...
has released three compilation albums with titles copied from Churchward's own books: The Cosmic Forces of Mu (2001), Children of Mu (2004) and Sacred Symbols of Mu (2006).
Works
- Fishing Among the 1,000 Islands of the St. Lawrence (1894)
- A Big Game and Fishing Guide to Northeastern Maine (1897)
- The Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Man (1926)
- Copies of Stone Tablets Found by William Niven at Santiago Ahuizoctla Near Mexico City (1927)
- Books of the Golden Age (1927)
- The Children of Mu (1931)
- The Lost Continent of Mu (1931)
- The Sacred Symbols of Mu (1933)
- Cosmic Forces of Mu (1934)
- Second Book of Cosmic Forces of Mu (1935)