Agartha

The spelling of Agartha is inconsistent. Different works variously spell it as Agartha, Agharta, Aghartta, Agarttha, Agharti, Arghati, or Agardhi, among others.^[1][2][3] The original spelling in the works of Louis Jacolliot was Asgartha. One etymology, according to John Greer, traces Asgartha as a derivation of Asgarth, an alternative spelling for the mythical Norse location of Asgard. According to this etymology, the 'a' was likely added to make it seem closer to Sanskrit, as the story was originally placed in India.^[1] The term Agartha or any variation of it had never been used prior to the 1870s, although it is often claimed that the idea is ancient and actually traces back to ancient India.^[4]

Agartha is an immense legendary kingdom that is said to be located on the inner surface of the Earth, sometimes involving a "King of the World" or multiple kings, who are said to rule Agartha, who secretly influence the events of the surface world.^[5][3] It is typically said to be located somewhere underneath Central Asia,^[1] or alternatively Tibet or the Himalayas.^[5][3] Variations of the story mention different hidden entrances to Agartha, which vary by telling, but have included Ayers Rock, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Earth's poles, Mato Grosso, the Gobi Desert, Cueva de los Tayos, or in Kentucky.^[3] It is sometimes related to the belief in a hollow Earth, or as the Earth's hidden spiritual center.^[2][6][7]

Agartha has been a popular subject in esotericism and occultism since the late 19th century. It is also popular in New Age thought and in alternative reality subcultures, though it receives little attention from most modern occultist researchers.^[8] There are numerous different versions of the story and circumstances of Agartha, most of which are inconsistent with each other. The earliest version did not involve the underground kingdom elements.^[1][9] It may have been taken in part from previous stories of hidden lands in occultism, such as Lemuria, Hyperborea, and Atlantis.^[3]

Many Theosophy groups or derived groups share a belief in the Grand Lodge of Agartha, which is made up of ascended masters who secretly control the world.^[10] The Order of the Solar Temple was one such group,^[11] though they also believed in Agartha generally, and believed in ascended masters living underground in the advanced civilization of Agartha.^[12] Notoriously, Solar Temple members ended up committing mass murder-suicide throughout the 1990s, partially rationalizing this as completing the "cycle" started by the Grand Lodge of Agartha.^[13]

Separately, Dwight York, leader of the Nuwaubian Nation, titled one of his books Shamballah and Aghaarta: Cities Within the Earth.^[14] The Polaires movement believed they communicated with an oracle through number and name manipulation, through which they could communicate with the "Rosicrucian Initiatic Center of 'Mysterious' Asia", led by sages who lived in Agartha.^[15][16] Some writers have alleged connections between the Nazis and Agartha, which have no evidence.^[17]

Agartha is frequently associated or confused with the Buddhist mythical kingdom Shambhala.^[2][18][19] In some versions of the Agartha concept, they are directly equated with one another.^[20] Other interpretations have them as two rival powers, one the "Right Hand Way" and one the "Left Hand Way", with Agartha being conceptualized as the right hand, a land of goodness, in contrast to Shambhala. Where this conceptualization of them as two rival powers comes from is unknown.^[2][20]

This interpretation appears in the book The Morning of the Magicians, which calls Agartha "a place of meditation, a hidden city of Goodness, a temple of non-participation in the things of this world".^[2] That book indicates the Agartha–Shambhala rivalry may have originated in the Vril Society or from René Guénon, but Guénon did not write anything about Shambhala in his book on Agartha, and there is no proof that the Vril Society existed at the time that idea originates.^[21] Nevertheless, it began to appear with great frequency in French works on the subject matter.^[9]

Esoteric writer Trevor Ravenscroft portrayed both as powers of "cosmic evil" and identified both cities with Rudolf Steiner's idea of two evil forces at odds with one another.^[20] According to writer and occultist John Michael Greer, in this interpretation of them both as evil, Agartha represents "a center of the Luciferic influence, the arrogant rejection of matter in favor of the intellect", and Shambhala represents "the Ahrimanic influence of absolute materialism".^[20] This interpretation was given by the neo-völkisch writer Wilhelm Landig in his novel that claims to have a factual basis, Götzen gegen Thule, where it is contrasted with Shambhala, and it is said the "Yellow peoples [...] await[...] the coming of a new Great Khan out of the underground realm, Agartha".^[22][23]

John Michael Greer described Agartha as "one of the most remarkable products of occult history—a rich fabric of legend woven out of a mixture of Victorian anthropology, occult politics, and thin air."^[1] Agartha's origins are largely found in Victorian euhemerism, which attempted to interpret mythology as containing references to hidden past history. Due to the prevailing theories of the time, this was usually taken from ancient Germanic myths.^[1]

The Agartha myth was created by French writer Louis Jacolliot, introduced in his book Les fils de Dieu (1873), lit. 'The Sons of God'.^[1][24][25] Jacolliot was a colonial official in South India and a writer of many popular books, including a trilogy discussing Indian mythology's relationship to Christianity.^[1][26] He claimed that he had been given access to ancient manuscripts that revealed 15,000 years of Indian history by Brahmin friends of his in Chandernagore, who had told him the story of Asgartha.^[1][26] This is likely untrue, with Jacolliot probably having made the concept up himself.^[1]

The original idea as presented by Jacolliot did not involve an underground kingdom, unlike later versions; Asgartha was said to be an ancient city, the solar capital of India since 13,300 BC.^[1][26] He conceptualized the city as ruled by the "Brahmatma", who were the manifestations of God and the chief priests of the Brahmins.^[26] Contrary to later depictions, Jacolliot's Agartha was not created by the Aryans but their precursors, who were overthrown by the Aryans (who became the Kshatriyas) in 10,000 BC.^[26]

His book tells of Agartha's rise and fall. The tale of Agartha has few commonalities with actual Indian mythology and more similarities to the contemporary theories on prehistory and Norse mythology, and attempts to historicize them, hence the name being a corruption of Asgard.^[1] Asgartha was said to have been destroyed in 5000 BC, shortly before the beginning of the Kali Yuga, by invading brothers from the Himalayas, Ioda and Skandeh. The destroyers were driven out by the Brahmins and fled north, where they became the Norse and were supposedly the namesakes of Odin and Scandinavia.^[1][26]

Les fils de Dieu was popular in France, giving the Agartha concept widespread exposure.^[1] Shortly after, Ernest Renan wrote about a Nordic Asgaard in Central Asia, likely influenced by Jacolliot.^[27] The next large step in the development of the Agartha concept came in 1886, when the French occultist Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre wrote Mission de l'Inde en Europe, lit. 'Indian Mission to Europe', about Agartha.^[1] He published the book with his own money; the first edition was labelled the third, a common marketing practice at the time.^[28][29] Less than two weeks later, he had all but two copies (one for Saint-Yves and one secretly kept by the printer) recalled and destroyed, apparently worried he had said too much about Agartha. Some later sources say his informants in India threatened to kill him for exposing Agarthan secrets.^[29][30] In 1910, after his death, the book was reissued.^[29][31]

Saint-Yves was introduced to the idea of Agartha by a man named Haji Sharif or Hardjji Scharipf, who taught him Sanskrit.^[1][28] Saint-Yves claimed he was a "high official of the Hindu church", though he had a name more commonly associated with Muslims; he may have actually been from Albania. His origins are largely unknown, and his later life is a mystery.^[29][28][32] Sharif was a Sanskritist, and claimed knowledge of Agartha, which he said still existed. With the idea of Agartha, he also taught Saint-Yves of its supposed language and alphabet, Vattanian or Vattan. Vattanian was, in actuality, created whole cloth by Sharif.^[29][28] The exact influence of Jacolliot on Saint-Yves's story is unknown, as it is likely Sharif who introduced him to the concept; Sharif and Saint-Yves later became embroiled in a dispute, and Saint-Yves instead claimed to astral travel to learn more.^[1][28][6] The narrative has many commonalities with Jacolliot's original, but with additional concepts taken from the Mahatma Letters in Theosophy, in addition to the novel Vril.^[1][33]

Saint-Yves described Agartha as an underground city with millions of inhabitants.^[1][34] It is ruled by a single very powerful figure, the Sovereign Pontiff, of Ethiopian origin, similar to the Brahmatma. The pontiff had magical powers and advanced technology, and was assisted by two others, the Mahatma and the Mahanga. Unlike Jacolliot, Saint-Yves claimed that Agartha still existed underground, having been moved there at the beginning of Kali Yuga 3,200 years earlier. Agartha keeps a constant track of the surface, is far more advanced technologically, and maintains the supposedly ideal Synarchy form of government lost by the surface since the dissolution of the "Universal Empire" in 4000 BC. In this version, Agartha sends its emissaries to the surface and possesses knowledge and secrets that the surface does not. When the world advances sufficiently, Agartha will be revealed to the world and share its secrets and treasures.^[1][34] Saint-Yves writes in the book encouragement to several heads of state to use their powers to lead to this.^[34]

Saint-Yves's version of the story told in this book would become the most popular and influential.^[1][24] Though the book was not republished until after his death, he alluded to Agartha in many of his other works.^[34] The idea of Agartha was spread through the popularity of Saint-Yves's works among Martinists,^[8] but, for a time, was only popular among a few Paris-based occultists. Theosophy was gaining popularity at this time, and for some anti-Theosophists the idea of Agartha was used to counter Theosophy.^[35]

With influence from Saint-Yves's works, probably due to Martinist influence, the Polish explorer Ferdynand Ossendowski wrote of Agartha, spelling it Agharti, in his 1922 book about his adventures across the world, Beasts, Men and Gods, claiming he had heard of it in Mongolia.^[36][37][38] According to Ossendowski, Agharti had 800 million people and in 2029 would invade the surface. They spoke Vattanan, and like Saint-Yves's version, were led by the Brahytma (the "King of the World"), the Mahytma, and the Mahynga.^[37][31][1]

Ossendowski's version was heavily influenced by Saint-Yves's version, which some scholars have said borders on plagiarism, merely changing the spellings.^[36][39][31] Ossendowski denied that he had ever read Mission de l'Inde en Europe or that he had even heard of Saint-Yves prior to writing it.^[36][40] This book was extremely successful and popularized the idea of Agartha outside of Martinist circles. The version propounded by Ossendowski is more or less the final form it achieved, and the one most typically seen.^[24][8]

The idea, as given by Ossendowski, was expanded upon in René Guénon's book Le Roi du Monde, which used it to explore the mythic and metaphysical aspects of the Agarthan concept.^[41][36][40] He connects Agartha to Rosicrucianism.^[41] Guénon claimed that other unnamed Central Asian sources also told of Agartha. He portrayed it as the world's spiritual center, ruled by the King of the World. He is ambivalent on whether the idea is historically and factually true or rather symbolic.^[40][31] His circle was interested in Agartha, and one of his associates, believing herself to be in contact with the Pontiff, claimed to have founded a secret society called Agartha 8.^[42]

Afterwards, the idea spread through outlets like the magazine Amazing Stories, which in the 1940s published several science fiction stories about Agartha.^[36] A version probably based on the Amazing Stories iterations is from esotericist and ufologist Robert Ernst Dickhoff in his 1951 book Agharta.^[43][7] Dickhoff's version is very different, depicting Agartha as "the Holy abode of the Buddhist world, located in the Sangpo Valley, China", originally colonized by Martians. He was an associate of Om Cherenzi-Lind, who claimed to be the reincarnation of "Koot Hoomi, Regent of Agartha". Cherenzi-Lind differentiated Agartha from Agarthi.^[43][7]

Hollow earth theorist Walter Siegmeister (writing as Raymond Bernard) wrote on Agartha, and is likely the reason for its association with hollow Earth theories.^[7] French writer and former Vichy collaborator Robert Charroux wrote on Agartha,^[44] as did esoteric fascist Miguel Serrano, who portrayed Agartha and Shambhala as the reestablishment of Hyperborea.^[45] Fascist writer Wilhelm Landig, in his book series which wrote about Agartha, coined the "black sun" symbol. This was later identified by other writers with an SS floor tile as the symbol of Agartha.^[46] Some conspiracist writers claimed Agartha was connected to Himmler's Nazi expeditions to Tibet in the late 1930s.^[47]

The 1974 book Nazisme et sociétés secretes by Jean-Claude Frére presents an alternative version of the story of Agartha.^[9] According to this version, Agartha was founded at some time around 6,000 years ago in the area that is now the Gobi Desert, after Hyperborea was made uninhabitable. It became a sort of world center and, for 2000 years, was a powerful civilization. Ultimately, Hyperborea and Agartha were struck down in a mysterious cataclysm, but managed to survive underground, where important figures (among them Jesus, Pythagoras, and Apollonius of Tyana) would go to receive orders from the "Masters of the World". The "Aryan people" afterwards split, some trying to return to Hyperborea. Others founded another secret civilization in Himalayan caves: Shambhala, with Shambhala representing the left-hand path as the "Wheel of the Black Sun" and Agartha the right-hand "Wheel of the Golden Sun", with Agartha maintaining the "vril force".^[9] Frére claims, falsely, that this was official Nazi doctrine, but it was popular with some in the Thule Society.^[9][38]

Agartha is the subject of Afrika Bambaataa's 1998 song "Agharta (City of Shamballa)". Its music video, directed by Daniel P. Siegler, depicts a future Earth with an uninhabitable surface and the majority of the population living in slavery in concentration camps, before they are freed by emissaries of Agartha.^[48][49] Dwight York's book on Agartha mimics this music video.^[14] In the 2020s, the concept of Agartha became an Internet meme. The meme version typically draws from the esoteric neo-Nazi and Hollow Earth versions of the mythology, featuring Nordic looking people and ufological elements. Many of the memes are explicitly racist and antisemitic, though others are not.^[50]

• Esoteric neo-Nazism – Mystical interpretations and adaptations of Nazism
• Hades – God of the underworld in Greek mythology
• Xibalba – Underworld in Kʼicheʼ Maya mythology